


Inner Demons

by Angelusalvus



Category: Lenin - The Lion
Genre: Depression, Drugs, Friendship, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:49:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 67,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26035201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angelusalvus/pseuds/Angelusalvus
Summary: This is a slight AU, displaying alternative events from the game's story. Lenin has to endure a life of pain and misery all because of the way he was born. Can he ever make friends, or would his depression consume him?
Kudos: 16





	1. New day, old pain

**Author's Note:**

> 1) English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.  
> 2) I don’t own Lenin the Lion  
> 3) This might have some spoilers for game, despite of the fact this is an AU.  
> 4)The game’s big reveal in the best ending does not exist in this story (If you got the 10th remembrance, you know what I’m talking about).

The day begun with an alarm clock ringing loudly. The sound echoed through the house as a white furred creature stirred on his bed. The creature was Lenin. He was a lion. An albino lion.

He groaned loudly as the alarm clock continued to ring and he finally got up and turned it off. He kept the clock over a table outside of his arm’s reach from the bed to force himself to get up. After all, getting up everyday was rather painful for him.

Every day was pure agony for the teenager lion. Some more than others. He always feels horrible when waking up. A long night of sleep barely gave him any rest. He didn’t yawn when he woke up, but his body still felt tired, heavy.

He went straight to the bathroom to tidy himself up and he splashed water vigorously on his face to at least not show others how he was feeling. He tried to avoid looking at himself at the bathroom’s mirror as he finished dressing up for school. He always tried to avoid looking at mirrors as of late. He only did it as briefly as possible to comb his mane and that was it.

He didn’t see his mother in her bedroom, so he just walked downstairs, however she wasn’t there either. All he saw was a note on the table. He knew its content before even picking it up.

Lenin, I had to leave to work early today as well. So, have your breakfast and don’t be late to school.

Also, don’t forget to take your medicine and try, TRY to not get hurt, alright? Avoid talking to anyone if you can.

Mother

Lenin just sighed as he put the note back on the table. He moved to the kitchen to prepare his breakfast. This was one of the few things that still gave him some resemblance of pleasure in his life. He prepared a toast with melt cheese with a glass of milk. He put the food over the table and then returned to the kitchen and he opened one of the drawers to pick up his medicine. It was inside of an orange tube and he opened it.

He stared at it for a little while wondering if he should or not actually take them. He doesn’t feel any better after he started taking them. Sure, he sometimes forgot to take them, but they should help the moment he took them, right?

He put a pill on his right paw and he just swallowed it and went back to the table. He slowly ate his breakfast, savoring the food.

Truth was he wanted to talk with his mother. With anyone. He had this great suspicion that his mother was suddenly leaving earlier and getting home late just to avoid him. It made his heart sink just to cogitate not even his mother wanted him anymore.

 _‘All because I was born wrong…_ ’ He thought, bitterly.

This ended up costing what little appetite he still had, but he had to finish the food on his plate, so he forced himself to the last bits of his food, despite his stomachache. He quickly washed the dishes and went to school.

It was a sunny day, but not too warm, thankfully. He wore dark blue clothing to contrast a little with his own fur. He had been mocked once for wearing light colored clothing. They had said that his fur and clothing choice had made him unbearable to look at under the Sun. So, from that day onwards, he wore only dark colored clothing.

He knew they were exaggerating, but he did it to avoid bringing even more attention to himself.

The way to his school was rather uneventful, until he approached the trees one block away from reaching his goal. He was jumped scared by four figures, four male lions.

Two of them were twins, Leandro and Antony. They were identical twins and had fluffy manes. They blocked his rear path. A bigger, somewhat chubby, lion called Harry seemed to block him from running towards the trees. Lastly, one blocked his front path. His name was Isaac. He was quite strong and really imposing.

“Well, well. Looks like the freak decided to come to school again.” Issac proclaimed, walking slowly towards Lenin. Isaac bore a grim, showing his sharp teeth towards Lenin.

The albino lion wanted to cower, to run away from them. But even if he tried, he doubted he could get away.

“Please, can you leave me alone just for today?” Lenin tried to plead to him, struggling to keep staring at Isaac’s eyes.

“How can we, when it looks like you took a shower in bleach?” Isaac then burst in laughter at his own joke and the other bullies followed suit shortly afterwards.

This had to be the 100th time Isaac had said this joke in the past few years, however, Lenin couldn’t help but to feel horrible every time he heard it. He just hoped that by not engaging in it, Isaac could be satisfied with just that.

 _‘I shouldn’t have left home. You should never leave your home.’_ He could hear a whisper in the back of his mind. But Lenin tried to push back such thoughts.

Isaac seemed a little annoyed at not getting any response from his target, so walked towards Lenin and grabbed him by the shirt. “What’s the matter? Lost your voice the same way you lost your fur color?”

Lenin shivered as he looked at the bully. Isaac was reveling in tormenting him. It brought the bully a strange sense of satisfaction to hurt someone weaker than him.

“Well…I suppose there are ways of making you say something” Isaac raised his right fist and the albino lion knew what was coming.

The first punch hit his stomach. This made Lenin gasp for air as he felt sick. Pain spread through his body as Isaac hit him again there, not giving any room to recover.

Lenin tried to block the second punch, but he was unable too. The pain became too much for him and he fell collapsed on the ground. Isaac didn’t lose a moment and he just kicked the fallen lion on his sides.

“Hey, Isaac. I think I hear someone talking from over there. It’s better to go before we are caught, no?” Harry said pointing to some bushes.

Isaac narrowed his eyes, but he couldn’t hear anything. If more students were arriving, or worse, teachers, he didn’t want to risk being caught in any case. “You get away this time, freak. But we’ll catch up later. Let’s go.”

He and the other bullies ran away into the school leaving Lenin whimpering on the ground. The albino lion had his hands over his stomach, trying to recover for the pain.

_‘I should have not left home.’_

**_‘You should have not left home.'_ **

_‘I should have not left home.’_

**_‘You should have not left home.’_ **

The voice in his head repeated over and over. Was he talking to himself or was something talking to him? He did not know. ‘ _Am I going crazy now?’_

He was able to sit down, not really caring if his clothes got dirty. After the pain subsided, he noticed that nobody showed up. He knew he came to school early precisely because Isaac and the other bullies liked to take their sweet time with him, but there should be other students popping up.

Many had seen him getting beaten up and none ever did anything to help. He wanted to say he was used to it, but he couldn’t. After catching his breath and feeling a little better he got up and went inside the school.

End of chapter 1


	2. The new kid

Lenin was able to get inside of school without any further problems. He still had some time for his first class, so he walked slowly through the corridors. He could see some students chatting in the corridors, but none paid him any mind.

The albino lion preferred that way. He remembers how awkward it was when everyone simply stopped talking whenever he walked into a room just to stare at him. The albino lion held back a sigh.

As he walked, he overheard another teenage lioness, one with glasses, sniffing while talking to another lion, who was notoriously trying a little too heard to be a goth.

“Isaac stole my lunch money…Again…” said the teen with glasses.

“That’s rough…You should tell the principal about it.” Replied the goth one.

“No way! If I did, Isaac would make my life a living hell!”

 _‘Well, at least I’m not the only one Isaac decided to torment today…_ ’ Lenin thought, bitterly, as he tried to look away from the two.

Lenin then felt something strange, it was like his body suddenly got heavier. It felt like something was climbing his back towards his head. He dared to look to his side and he saw an amorphous pitch-black creature with blue eyes staring right at him.

He quickly looked around and nobody seemed to so much react to what was happening ‘ _So, you are taking pleasure that others are suffering now? Do you want them to suffer more than you do, right? After all, nobody ever comes to your rescue. Let them feel a fraction of your pain as punishment._ ’ The dark creature whispered into his ear, despite not having a mouth.

 _‘Wha…Am I really going crazy?’_ This sent a cold shiver down his spine.

He closed his eyes shut tightly for a little while and when he re-opened them, the strange being was gone. Lenin was starting to have a cold sweat and to breath faster. He looked at his sides in panic trying to catch the black shadow again, but there was nothing to be found out of ordinary.

His heart was pounding so much it felt it could burst through his chest. It was at that point Lenin realized people were starting to stare at him, after all he was just standing in the middle of the hall for no apparent reason.

“What the heck is he even doing? Did he just decide to daydream out of nowhere?”

“Is he becoming weirder every day, or is it just me?”

“I hope he doesn’t sit next to me in class!”

“The freak is getting freakier! Ha!”

“What a creep!”

Lenin clenched his fists and teeth and just walked away. His day was going bad enough and he didn’t need more things to worry about at that moment. He just sped up and moved to another hallway when suddenly someone bumped into him.

“Ouch!” said the stranger.

Lenin groaned in pain as well, given his body still ached from Isaac’s punches. But when he recovered enough, he just blinked as he stared at this teen. He was just a few inches shorter than Lenin and wore glasses with an almost golden yellow many, blue shirt, black pants and red suspenders.

Lenin never recalled seeing him at the school before. Then, again, everyone knew who he was, but he barely knew other people’s names.

“I’m terribly sorry. I’m looking for the library. I’m new here and I can’t find it anywhere. The signs here aren’t really helpful.” This new teen replied in awkward manner.

“I see...No worries about it.” Lenin said. It was quite rare to see someone apologizing to him. He knew it was just out of politeness, but this guy sounded sincere for a change.

“As for the library, you need to go up the stairs over there and go right into the next corridor. It’s the door next to the principal’s office.” Lenin explained after recomposing himself.

This teen smiled brightly “Thanks a bunch! Say, what’s your name?”

Lenin raised an eyebrow. Surely, he must be very new in the whole village to not have heard at least a single rumor about him. “I’m Lenin.”

He smiled “I’m Edward! Nice to meet you!” He said extending his hand towards Lenin.

The albino lion stared blankly at the gesture. He was not used to being treated like any other person. He hesitated for a little while, but he did shake Edward’s hand.

The lion with glasses found it a little strange to see this other lion to be so quiet. “So, I’ll be going now. See you in classes!” Edward said trying to break the ice.

Lenin snapped back to reality as he replied. “Sure.”

Then he heard a familiar voice shouting at them, “What is this? A freak convention?”

Edward turned to see who said it. “Huh…hello?” he said, awkwardly.

 _‘His insults are getting worse…’_ Lenin thought, raising his left hand to hold the strap of his backpack tightly, near chest.

 _‘You think he should just die, don’t you?’_ Something whispered at Lenin’s ear, which made the albino lion too scared to even look around since he didn’t want to even dare see if there was another creature like the one from earlier.

“There is certainly no convention. But feel free to start one, if you like.” Edward replied crossing his arms.

Lenin wanted to scream ‘ _YOU IDIOT!!’_ But he remained quiet with his fur standing up, wondering why the hell would this teen escalate things with Isaac.

“What did you say, four eyes?” Isaac growled. His face distorted in pure hatred towards Edward.

Lenin was about to say ‘ _I gotta go’_ and get away from Isaac as fast as possible, when he barely managed to stop himself from doing so. This new kid didn’t know how tarrying Isaac truly is and the albino lion didn’t want to suffer more than he already did this morning.

But to leave Edward like that…wouldn’t just be how everyone else acted like when Lenin was bullied.

 **‘ _This is a mistake. Do not do this. Leave while you can. Let another be the one to take the heat from Isaac.’_** The strange, yet somehow familiar, voice whispered into the back of his mind.

“Look, Isaac, he’s new here and doesn’t know anything.” Lenin said almost desiring to kick himself for it.

Isaac stared at the albino lion for a couple of seconds before his angry expression melted into a pure, malicious smile, “Have you made a new friend, freak?”

Lenin, simply couldn’t keep his gaze up and just looked down as he replied, “Of course not…But wasn’t what you did for me…enough for today?”

Edward was a little taken aback by this exchange and he did grow fearful when Isaac walked slowly at the two of them, clenching his fists, “I say when enough is enough, you stupid little shit.”

But before he could finish is sentence, the twin lion from earlier popped up, dashing towards Isaac. Their expression was troubled as they fumbled to hurriedly tell Isaac.

“Isaac, there’s some trouble…” one of the twins said, gesticulating hurriedly.

“We kind of got caught when getting money from other kids…” said the other, clearly as uncomfortable as his brother.

“And the principal knew that we weren’t collecting it for ourselves…”

Lenin didn’t know which twin was which, and he frankly didn’t care much for it. However, he felt a cold shiver down his spine as he saw Isaac’s face contort with pure spite. “So, you two rat me out, then?”

“We are in hot water too, you know!” said one twin, trying to calm Isaac down.

“The principal sent us to detention for the next two weeks and he now wants to talk with you. He knew we always hanged out together and he was already suspicious of you. There wasn’t anything we could do!”

“Please don’t kill us!”

Isaac let out a warning growl at the two, who immediately ceased talking. He then turned to Lenin and Edward and told them, “Don’t you think this is over. Once this is resolved, I’ll make sure you both eat your words.”

He then stormed, fuming with anger towards the principal office, but not without giving the twins a nearly poisonous glare.

“He was pissed off, Antony…” Leandro told to his brother.

“What could we do? The principal knows a fraction of what Isaac does around here. Not saying anything to him, could have gotten us expelled. This is the only school in this town. Our parents would kill us!” Antony replied back.

But to their dismay, they weren’t exactly speaking low, so Edward and Lenin could hear their exchange. When they noticed it, Leandro just turned to them and growled at them, “Not a word to Isaac, you hear?”

Lenin and Edward merely nodded, as the twins stormed off somewhere else.

When they were alone, Edward spoke softly to Lenin, “I’m sorry. I…didn’t know he was bullying you like this. I made things worse for you, didn’t I?”

Lenin shifted, uncomfortable, before saying, “You didn’t know…besides he would say and do these things regardless. I just know that it’s better to just let it happen. He gets…more violent, when people resist.”

Edward look down at his feet as he said, “Somethings are a constant it seems.”

Lenin blinked a couple of times before asking him what he meant by that.

The lion with glasses then said, “I used to be bullied back at my old school too. They always acted all nice and friendly when they wanted me to help them cheat in exams, but they also didn’t hesitate to shove me into lockers. I thought I could start over in this school, but it seems to be just more of the same. I thought I could stand up to them now, but this Isaac guy seems to be quite dangerous and I think I made a mistake there...”

Lenin said nothing. He had always wondered if he and his mother moved to another town, things could get better, but this confirms one of his many fears.

Edward then rubs his neck and says, “Again, sorry for troubling you. Thanks for helping me out. See you later, Lenin.”

The teen turned and was about to leave. When Lenin said “Wait!”

 ** _‘What are you doing, you idiot? Let this loser go!_ ’** said the voice.

The albino lion did everything in his power to ignore it when he said, “I’ll show you where the library is.”

Edward smiled brightly as he said, “Really? Thanks a lot, Lenin!”

Lenin allowed himself to smile a little bit.

 **‘ _Already forgot what happened last time, huh? Oh well. Don’t blame me when you get hurt again.’_** The macabre voice gave a chuckle in the corner of his mind.

End of chapter 2


	3. Collapse

Lenin and Edward walked through the corridors of the school as Lenin pointed out where each class was taught. Edward paid close attention to the explanation as he made sure to memorize everything.

However, Lenin felt his steps grow heavier as they approached the principal’s office. He stared almost hypnotically at the door. Dread consumed him as he considered knocking the door.

But then he remembered. Isaac was right on the other side of the room. Part of him wanted to listen in and hear what they were talking about, but he decided against it. If Isaac ever found out, he did it, he would suffer a whole lot more.

His new acquaintance found Lenin’s fixation with the red door to be strange. Edward didn’t know Lenin well to actually gauge if it was strange behavior or not, to tell the truth. But he was curious, and a little worried, in any case.

The geek then read the nameplate next to it, “So, this is the principal’s room? Is the library nearby, then? I think we should hurry before that bully leaves the principal’s office.”

That removed Lenin from his stupor as he hurriedly said, “Y-yes. The library is over there.”

The albino lion then walked past the red door towards and they soon arrived at the Library. Lenin opened the door and both got inside of it. The library wasn’t that big. It had several shelves of books, around four big round tables and only five individual ones for studying. It was never really much of an issue since not many students actually gathered at the same time there. So, there were always empty seats even during exam weeks.

The selection of books was quite fascinating, however. It had books, not just about the subjects taught in classes from all grades, but also some college level ones as well. There were even books about archeology, astronomy and quite a selection of philosophy ones.

Edward seemed to be having quite a lot of fun browsing the shelves looking for what he needed. As for Lenin, he never really cared much. Not lately, at least. The albino lion was barely passing his exams and he knew this semester was particularly bad for him.

He couldn’t focus to study anymore. This only aggravated his situation as he started to worry about failing his grade and having to go through it again.

Lenin placed his hand over his stomach as the pain returned once more as he thought about his impending academy doom. But it wasn’t pain form just Isaac’s punches this time.

 ** _‘Not only you’re a freak, you’re stupid as well. Will you beg your teachers on your knees to not fail you? You make me sick.’_** The strange voice said.

‘ ** _You’ll certainly be the talk of the school once more. Just imagine you, as an adult, having to course the 10 th grade over and over again. Wouldn’t that be shameful of you? But this will be your future!’_ **said the voice, sounding more and more distorted.

Lenin wanted to tell it to shut up, but the words got stuck in his throat. ‘ _What if I do repeat the grade? What if I can’t even graduate high school?’_ the boy thought as he started to breath harder and faster.

Suddenly a strange coldness started to spread through his body. He felt like he was starting to have cold sweat, his body started to tremble. He started to feel suffocated and a dizzy spell was starting to take over his body. When he heard Edward asking, a little too loudly, “Lenin, are you okay?”

“SHHHHH!” chastised the librarian, without so much as getting up to know what was going on.

Edward ignored that and placed a hand on his shoulder. This startled Lenin, which made him look around, as he regained control of his body.

“Are you sick? Do you need to see the nurse?” Edward pressed, concerned.

“No…No. I’m...okay. Really. I just…didn’t eat well this morning, I guess.” Lenin tried to calm his new acquaintance, and himself as well.

Edward frowned and he was clearly not buying the excuse. The albino then tried to change subjects, “Did you find the book you were looking for?”

The lion with glasses stood silent for a few seconds, before replying, “Yes…I found the history book I needed for my first period. But are you really…”

Lenin then interrupted the other lion, “Good. You need to go to the librarian and he’ll register you in the school system.”

Edward said nothing, but he accompanied Lenin to the librarian and the two stood there silently as the librarian asked for all the information and documents form Edward, who, luckily, had all of them with him.

Once they were done, Lenin then told Edward where the History classes are taught for his grade.

“Can you show it to me? I don’t want to get lost…or meet that guy by accident.” Edward pleaded Lenin.

 **‘ _Ditch him already!’_** Replied the voice at the back of his mind.

“Sure.”

 ** _‘This is almost hilarious.’_ **That voice said. Lenin could almost feel whoever was saying these things to be smiling at him.

The albino lion did his best to ignore it and walked with Edward towards the classroom.

“Can I ask you something? Why is this town called Samiga Village? I mean, I know this place is small, but I don’t think it’s small enough to be called a Village.” Edward asked as they walked.

Lenin’s lips almost curved into a smiled at that question, “I had wondered that too for a long time. It turned out the ‘Village’ part of the name was in the founding of this town and even after it grew a little more, they simply decided to keep it. Imagine if this place grows to the point where we have several tall buildings and we still have to call it a village, after that.”

Edward chuckled a little. Lenin had almost forgotten how good it was to talk to people. Too bad not many people wanted to talk to him.

“So, which class do you have now?” Edward asked to break the silence.

“My first period will be English. After that, I have Geography, then Biology. You?” Lenin replied somewhat enjoying having someone to talk to, even if it was something trivial like this.

Edward brightened at that, “My third period will also be Biology. We can talk more later on, then.”

Lenin blinked a couple of times before saying, “Sure. See you later, then. The bell is about to ring, I need to rush to my class.”

Edward suspected something was amiss, but he didn’t know if it would be polite to ask.

“Before you go, thanks for helping me out with that bully.” He told Lenin.

“When you see Isaac, just do what he asks you to do. It’s actually less painful like that.”

The lion with glasses simply frowned, “Should I just give him my money or be thrown it locker rooms and enjoy it? This is wrong!”

“It’s better than the alternative, believe me.” The albino lion said, looking to his feet.

But before Edward could ask any further, Lenin told him, “I really need to go now, the English teacher will have my head if I get late in the class again.”

Lenin then turned, leaving the new student behind, not responding when he had said, “See you later, Lenin.”

The albino lion simply dashed through the corridors and managed to get to the class a few seconds before the bell rang.

The teacher was already there and she didn’t seem very happy. She wore a pink dress with an equally pink floppy hat, which she never removed, not even for classes. Some students did complain that it got in the way to see what she wrote on the board, but nobody dared to voice it to her.

“Good to know you remembered of coming to class today, Mr. Lenin. Now go sit down, the class will start soon.” She said drily as she eyes the boy walking towards a vacant desk, at the middle row of the class.

It always felt horrible how everyone’s eyes were on him as he moved. He just wished people would mind their own business for a change.

He picked his notebook and a pencil and he stared at the teacher as she started with the class.

Lenin did his best to pay attention in the class, but after ten minutes, he started to lose focus. His tiredness from another poor night of sleep cumulated with the aching of his body started to cause his mind to wander of.

He tried to keep himself awake, but his eyelids were growing heaver by every second. He wondered if he could just close them for a few seconds without the teacher noticing, but, before he knew it, his mind wandered away.

______________________

Years ago, when Lenin was still nine years old, He had a friend, a boy called Michael. He was a boy with a short brown mane, who had been one of the very few people who didn’t insult or said mean things to him and the only one that offered to be his friend.

Lenin was rejoiced at finally having a friend. The two of them played a lot together after school. Until Isaac found out about it, that is.

One day, Isaac and his goons corned Lenin and Michael after school. The two of them were quite scared. Isaac had been mean to the two of them and they weren’t sure what he was going to do this time.

“Here’s the deal”, the bully started, “Michael, if you don’t want to be hit today, punch the freak right on his face! Make him grovel on the ground.”

“What? You can’t be serious! We are friends!” Lenin tried to protest.

“Shup up, freak. I’m not talking to you!” Isaac snarled and then he turned to the other boy, “If you don’t, Michael, we are going to beat you both up.”

Michael was teary eyed as he clenched his fists and turned to Lenin, who could only mutter in disbelief, “Michael?”

Before the albino lion could do anything, Michael punched Lenin right on the face. The punch hurt a lot, but it wasn’t enough to knock Lenin down. Michael quickly punched Lenin a few more times and he finally fell on the ground squirming on the ground with pain.

“Why? We are friends!” Lenin sobbed as tears steamed down his cheeks as he looked up at the boy who had just attacked him.

Michael was trembling and wasn’t even looking at Lenin, he was looking at Isaac who was smirking, satisfied. “Good job. You can go, Michael.”

The lion didn’t say anything to Lenin. He just ran away from the scene, clearly scared of Isaac changing his mind and hurting him as well.

Lenin screamed at his former friend, who abandoned him without a second thought.

Isaac then approached Lenin, who was still on the lying on the ground, “Do you see, freak? Nobody is your friend. He threw you away like the trash you are just to save his ass.”

Lenin clenched his teeth as more tears rolled down his eyes.

Isaac seemed to be satisfied seeing him in so much pain, more from the betrayal than the physical wounds.

“You’ll never make any friends. That I guarantee you.” Isaac said as he left, his goons following suit.

After that day, Lenin and Michael never spoke to each other again. Michael tried to apologize. He tried to argue that he just didn’t want to get beaten like Lenin always was and he asked the albino lion to understand.

But Lenin would not forgive him. So, he decided to ignore Michael from that point onwards.

Strangely enough, Isaac gloated how he broke their friendship a little too loudly in the corridors and this ended up being spread through other students. Even the ones who weren’t exactly friendly with Lenin did find Michael’s behavior to be repugnant, so they started avoiding him as well. But not out of solidarity for Lenin, but at the fear Michael would betray them as well.

A few weeks later, Michael’s family moved out of town. Lenin had heard many rumors about why it had happened. Some said it was because Michael had become friends with Lenin, others said it was because the father got a better job in a big city, while others said it was because Michael was being bullied in school and since Samiga Village was too small he didn’t have any other school to go to at the area.

Lenin was upset. He was upset at himself to believe someone wanted to be his friend. He was upset at Isaac for destroying something he liked. He was upset with Michael for betraying him. He was upset with the whole school for feeding, creating and twisting so many rumors.

And so, never again, anyone tried to be friends with Lenin.

______________________

It was then when Lenin heard that strange voice, sounding even more distorted, **_‘Never trust anyone. Never believe anyone. You are and will always be alone. You should have never been born.’_**

That jolted Lenin back to reality. He blinked a couple of times really fast and he could. The other students snickered a lot at him, which made the albino lion crestfallen for dozing off in the middle of the classroom.

He felt extremely tired and that little nightmare he just had didn’t make anything better. He tried to focus on the class, but a few seconds after he grabbed his pencil again, the bell rang. And he had just written a couple of notes from the very start of the class.

“Mr. Lenin, I need to speak with you.” The English teacher said as she cleaned the board and the other students left the classroom for their next classes.

Lenin awkwardly got up and approached her. He already knew what was coming.

“Mr. Lenin. I noticed you didn’t even try to keep yourself awake during my class. The reason why I didn’t wake you was because it would waste a lot of time from the students who actually wanted to learn. I do suggest you to stop watching movies or playing games until so late at night. Your grades are in a horrible spot right now and you don’t need to make them worse just because you want to fool around. Act like the veteran you are. Am I understood?

“Yes, ma’am…” Lenin simply replied. He knew it was pointless to argue with her. She wouldn’t believe that he can’t sleep well or rest at home in any case.

“Good. Now go to your next class. I have others students to teach now” She quickly dismissed him.

He just left the classroom without saying anything. He felt exhausted to put it simply. To make matters worse her little talk just made him remember of his small panic attack early on.

His steps got heavier and heavier. His chest hurt a lot and he found harder to breath. He could feel and hear everyone in the corridor staring at him. Murmuring about him. Pointing at him. Laughing at him.

The entire corridor started to spin around and his legs started to tremble. He tried to lean on a wall and before his vision blacked out, all he heard was someone screaming his name.

End of chapter 3


	4. Friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have changed the "dark voice" lines so they are bold now.

Edward was going for his next class when he spotted Lenin in the hallway. The new student tried to call for him, but Lenin hadn’t replied. As Edward approached, he saw Lenin’s steps getting unsteady and right before he collapsed, the lion with glasses managed to hold his body from hitting the floor.

“Hey, Lenin! Are you okay? Can someone help?” Edward said as he looked around, hoping someone would aid him. But everyone either just stared or rushed past them.

Edward got angry at the fact that the other students would act in such callous manner. he did his best to gently put Lenin sitting down, leaning his back against the wall, while repeatedly trying to talk with albino lion.

He considered rushing to the nurse office to get someone, but not only he didn’t know where it was, but he also didn’t want to leave Lenin alone. He was getting a little desperate, but then he heard Lenin groaning back into consciousness.

The albino lion blinked a couple of times as he saw Edward next to him. That startled him a little, “Edward? What’s going on? Wh-why am I sitting down?”

The geeky lion sighed in relief as he explained, “I saw you in the hallway when you suddenly passed out. Are you feeling sick? You should…Your eyes!”

It was then when Edward noticed looking closely. Lenin had some big dark circles under his eyes and this certainly couldn’t be healthy. “Are you having trouble to sleep?” Edward pressed.

Lenin was feeling uncomfortable. He knew the other lion was probably just being polite, but he didn’t want to bother others with his problems. “I’m fine. Really. All I had was just one bad night of sleep.”

Edward, however, wasn’t buying it. “I’m not a doctor, but I highly doubt a single bad night would cause all of this. I’ll help you to go to the nurse.”

“I’m fine!” Lenin tried to argue.

“No, you’re not. This isn’t up for discussion.” Edward countered as he helped Lenin stand up again.

The albino lion sighed. He should indeed go see the nurse. However, the bell for the next class rang and Lenin already knew he would probably miss the next period.

 **‘ _You can’t even bring yourself to properly go to classes and pay attention to them for a full day. How much of a failure can you be?_** _’_ The disembodied voice tormented him again.

“Alright. I’ll go to the nurse. You can go to the class now.” Lenin said as he started to walk away.

“Wait. I’ll go with you.” Edward hurried by his side.

“You’re already late. Skipping classes won’t sound good for your first day.” Lenin told him as he felt a new rush of tiredness wash over him. He leaned against the wall to recover, but this only seemed to fuel Edward’s determination.

“See. You’re not fine. What if you collapse on your way there? I can catch up with the class later. Don’t worry.” the geeky lion countered.

“You might get detention for it and they might call your parents.” Lenin countered.

“It’s fine. I would feel worse leaving you here.”

Seeing how he couldn’t convince the other boy, Lenin accepted his assistance. _‘The faster we get there, the faster he’ll leave me alone.’_ The albino thought.

Then the two went together to the nurse’s office. On their way, Lenin just had to ask, “Why are you being so nice to me?”

“Huh? You helped me big time today. Besides, it’s only natural to help someone needing help.” Edward explained in such a manner, it made the albino lion swallow the need to scoff at these words.

 ** _‘He just feels indebted to you. You weren’t feeling like you could be friends, weren’t you? He can’t even read the mood of the room. Did he not notice anyone could have helped you, but everyone avoided you like the plague ridden rat you are.’_** the dark voice whispered.

Lenin just tensed at such comment, but said nothing. As for Edward, he found the sudden silence to be strange and he wondered if he had said something wrong, but decided to not press on it.

At the nurse’s office, the two got inside, and the nurse looked worried when she saw Lenin.

“Hello, boys. Did something happen? Are you feeling ill?” the nurse asked as she approached them. Then she turned to the albino lion, “Did something happen, again, Lenin?”

“I…just felt a little weak. I’m fine now.” He said, looking away from the nurse’s eyes.

“You collapsed on the ground. I think you should lie down for a little while or call your parents to take you home for today.” Edward suggested with the best of intentions.

Lenin gritted his teeth as he stared at Edward, “I’m not going miss another school day.”

Edward regretted opening his mouth. he didn’t understand why would anyone try to hide something that could be serious for their health. But he couldn’t help, but to wonder what Lenin meant with “another”.

The albino lion’s reaction didn’t go unnoticed to the nurse, “Lenin, I know you are,” she made a quick pause as she eyed Edward, “going through a lot at the moment. But passing out is a serious thing. You clearly haven’t been sleeping well, from what I can see. Did you talk with Serena about it?”

“Yes.” Lenin said.

 ** _‘Filthy liar.’_** Replied the voice.

The nurse suspected the boy might be hiding something, but she said nothing. “In any case, it’s better for you to lie down for now, while I do a quick check up on you, to be sure you’re okay.”

“Fine.” replied the albino lion. But, deep down, the nurse wouldn’t check his chest. He was almost certain that he had some bruises from Isaac’s beating and he didn’t want anyone to find out about it.

“As for you, thank you for bringing him here. I’m happy he found a new friend.” The nurse said.

“We are not friends. We just met today.” Lenin quickly said. This hurt Edward, who looked away.

The nurse then tried to quickly change subjects, “What’s your name? I’m sorry, but I don’t recall you.”

“I’m Edward, ma’am. Today is my first day at this school. My family moved here a few days ago.”

“Well, Edward, I’m going to give you a pass for you to give your teacher. You did a good thing here and this will prevent you from getting into trouble. Thank you, again, for helping Lenin.”

The nurse then picked a piece of paper and wrote something down and stamped it. She then gave it to Edward, who accepted it.

“See you later, Lenin.” Edward said, awkwardly.

“Bye.” He replied drily, wanting the boy to leave him.

**_‘You’re finally learning.’_ **

Lenin then felt guilty for doing it

Feeling uncomfortable, Edward then left the office, leaving the other two alone.

“He seems to be a good kid. You don’t have to push everyone away. Not everyone wants to hurt you.” She said as examined Lenin’s blood pressure and temperature.

He took a little while to answer it, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

The nurse couldn’t help, but to feel sorry for the boy, “I see. But I do need to inform your mother about what happened in school. You should talk to her and also to Serena about it next time you meet. It’s tomorrow, isn’t it? We want you to get better, Lenin. Have you been taking your medicine properly?”

Lenin got a little nervous knowing his mother would know about him passing out in the hallway and he ended up getting riled up, “Do you think I’m a little kid? Of course, I am.”

She was a little taken aback by the sudden outburst and Lenin, realizing it, quickly said, “Sorry…I’ve been taking them, more regularly lately, after I spent that week away...But they don’t make me feel better. I don’t even think they help at all.”

The nurse was understanding and she told him, “It’s okay, Lenin. I know this is hard and I can’t say I know what it’s like. But you need to follow Serena’s instructions. We talk a lot and we can see what else can be done to help you. Depression isn’t cured overnight. It’s a slow process, sadly. However, don’t give up hope. You’ll get better, I promise you that.”

The nurse placed a hand over his should and offered him a gentle, warm smile. The boy was starting to feel like someone actually cared until the taunting voice chimed in, **_‘Ha! That psychiatrist and this nurse don’t want to help you. They’re being paid to care and you know it._** ’

That comment felt like a bucket of cold water over his very soul. “Thanks. Can I go now? I’m not really sick.” he quickly said, now wanting to leave the room as fast as possible.

The nurse could tell he was in quite some pain. But there was nothing much she could do, given how his other vital signs are normal, aside from his lethargy. “Lenin, have you tried passion fruit before going to sleep? It helps quite a bit. It’ll help you relax a little bit and maybe you’ll have better nights of sleep this way.”

 ** _‘It’s just a stupid placebo. Don’t even bother.’_** The voice said, chuckling at the end.

“I’ll check it out. Thanks for the tip. Can I go now? I think I might be able to catch the second half of my Geography class. Can you give me a pass too?” Lenin quickly said.

“Sure…Give me a second.” The nurse said as she prepared Lenin’s pass, explaining he was with her.

“Are you sure, you don’t want to rest the rest of the period? I know you’re stil unwell.” The nurse said as she turned to face him.

“I am. My grades aren’t good to the point where I can afford to keep skipping classes.” He said, feeling dejected at his situation.

“Things will improve. I promise. If you feel anything else, please come back here, alright?” The nurse tried to encourage him, but all Lenin did was to nod.

The moment when Lenin opened the door, he saw someone moving and when he looked to his right, it was Edward.

“You were eavesdropping.” Lenin said, feeling a outraged by this breach of privacy.

“I…I didn’t mean to overhear. I was worried and…” Edward fumbled around, embarrassed for spying on him. The geeky teen was worried about him and wanted to know what was going on, especially because he didn’t understand nobody so much as seemed to care to see Lenin passing out. But, now, he felt like kicking himself for doing so.

Lenin wanted to get angry, but an old tiredness washed it away, “It doesn’t really matter if you heard it or not. You’re bound to hear about it from other people anyway.”

Edward blinked a couple of times, “Everyone knows you have depression?”

Lenin felt his body go stiff at the mention of his condition, “Yes. But you can just say it’s made up or that I’m just sad. I’m used to it by now.”

“Why would I ever do this to you? I know that depression is a serious illness.” Edward said, now being the one feeling indignant for being accused of such thing. Then again, he had to remind himself that it was him who listened in to something he shouldn’t.

“You don’t have to worry. One more person ridiculing me won’t matter.” Lenin simply stated as he walked past the lion with glasses.

“But…Why are people doing this to you? I don’t understand.” Edward asked, pleadingly.

This stopped Lenin on his tracks, “You can’t be serious. Are you colorblind or something?”

“Huh?”

“I’m albino!” Lenin nearly shouted.

“So?” Edward asked, not really understanding what the matter was.

“SO?” Lenin repeated, now much loudly, feeling exasperated.

The door suddenly opened and the nurse came out and saw both boys still on the corridor. “Did something happen?” After seeing Lenin’s look, she inquired further, “Are you fighting? If yes, then this needs to stop. Edward, go to your class. Now.”

“We weren’t fighting. I just...wanted to know…” Edward tried to defend himself and then it finally clicked in his mind. Lenin was an albino. He knew albinos were incredibly rare, but he never considered people could be so mean to another person just because of something like this.

“Everyone treats you bad just because of the way you were born?” Edward asked, still incredulous.

Lenin shifted uncomfortably and didn’t answer. Edward’s reaction was of genuine confusion. It hadn’t even crossed Edward’s mind to care about Lenin’s fur color and, now, this was evident for Lenin as well.

The nurse was unsure of what was going on and asked, “Lenin, is everything alright?”

If Edward was also bullying Lenin, she would have to distance the two of them as fast as possible before the albino lion’s condition worsened.

“Yes…I mean. Thanks, but this was just a misunderstanding. We are going to our classrooms now.” He then turned to the nurse and thanked her before leaving.

Edward just blinked a couple of timed, having no idea if he should say or do something. He turned to the nurse and asked her, “Does…the entire school bully Lenin just because of his fur color?”

The nurse respected Lenin’s privacy, so all she told him was, “Not everyone in this school. But some people here are just short minded and others are cruel because of his albinism.”

“This is stupid! Lenin shouldn’t be judged or bullied because of this!” Edward proclaimed.

The nurse smiled at the boy. She could tell he was being sincere as she said, “Lenin is going through a lot. Please be patient with him.”

Edward just looked down, not even sure how he could talk to Lenin now that he somewhat was aware what was going on in this school. He rubbed the back of his head, “I don’t know what to do. I mean, I used to be bullied too. But It was never to the extent people would ignore I existed.”

The nurse sighed, “I trust you’ll do what’s right. I know I shouldn’t be putting this kind of responsibility onto someone so young, but could you try talk to him. I think having a friend would help him a lot.”

“Well, I already wanted to be his friend. He even helped me a lot earlier today.”

The nurse smiled softly, “I do hope you two get along. Now, Edward, you really should be going to class. Don’t worry about your teacher. I’ll talk to him, if anything happens, alright?”

He smiled back at her and thanked her for her words.

_____________________

At the Geography class, Lenin apologized for being so late. He showed the paper to the teacher, who quickly read it and assured him he it was everything alright and told him to pick a seat.

The albino lion did as he was told and he couldn’t help, but to hear the murmurs.

“Looks like he’s trying to bait teachers into letting him stay at home again.”

“Yeah. This depression thing makes people faint too? he’s obviously pretending.”

“I think I should talk to Lenin to learn how to pull it off. I want to stay at home too without having to face teacher’s wrath.”

“Be quiet, everyone. If you have time to gossip about other people, you have time to study.” The teacher silenced them. He gave Lenin a worried look, but the boy seemed to be unfazed by their comments, so he continued the class.

But, in reality, Lenin wanted to scream.

‘ ** _Come on. Do it. Make a scene and be sent home. They’ll talk ill of you in any case. Might as well give them a piece of your mind.’_**

But Lenin ignored it. He just tried to focus on the class, but he basically arrived near its end and he wasn’t really understanding much of what the teacher was saying. He couldn’t even take proper notes from the class. He was just copying what he was hearing in hopes he could make sense later.

**_‘As if you could spend five minutes focused on studying.’_ **

Lenin closed his eyes tightly shut and took a deep breath. His chest ached again. He couldn’t let himself have another episode that day. In the end, his notebook was filled with disconnected sentences because his mind tried to repeatedly “shut down” in order to avoid listening to the voice.

The bell rang and Lenin got up, but the teacher called him to ask if he was feeling alright.

**_‘Ah, yes. The teachers love to pretend they care about their students. But they do shit to actually help you. They just want to appear like good people.’_ **

Lenin hated to agree with the voice, but he couldn’t speak what he truly thought to anyone. He just told the teacher he was feeling much better and that he wanted to catch up with the next class.

He then remembered he was going to have Biology class with Edward. He didn’t even know what to say. Things got really awkward earlier and he started to think he blew up any chance of actually having a friend.

**_‘You still had hopes for it? Even after everything? He just moved on already. Nobody would ever want to be your friend.’_ **

Lenin sulked, kept his head low and just walked towards the class. After he got there, Edward was already there, alongside other students. There was a empty seat next to him, but he was afraid of taking it, so he just sat on the opposite side of him.

Edward looked at Lenin and was a little sad that he chose to sit so far away.

The class started without any further incidents and Lenin, at least, found this class to be somewhat productive compared to the other two.

After the class ended, Lenin picked his things and left the classroom. In the hallway, Edward caught up with Lenin and asked if he could talk.

Lenin braced himself for a possible barrage of insults and he was quite surprised to see Edward say, nervously, “Sorry for overhearing your talk to the nurse. I didn’t know anything about what you were going through and I even spied on you. I was worried, but I know that isn’t much of an excuse.”

Lenin avoided looking directly at Edward as he also said, “Sorry for lashing out on you too. You saved me from hitting my head when I fell.”

“I’m not used to people actually trying to know me.” Lenin added. “Or even doing anything that resembled caring. Usually, it’s only adults who do, but they do it out of pity.”

“That nurse really cares about you, you know.” Edward said, trying to cheer Lenin up.

Lenin wanted to disagree with him, but he found it to be better to not reply to it. It was her job, after all, to take care of the students.

**_‘Exactly, she is just being professional.’_ **

It made Lenin’s stomach churn everytime he agreed with this disembodied voice.

“Maybe we can start over. I’m Edward” the geeky lion said extending his hand to Lenin, who was confused beyond words.

Edward retracted his hand and smiled sheepishly, “Sorry, it was a lame joke.”

It took Lenin a couple of seconds to understand it and when he did, he gave a laugh, like he hadn’t in many, many years. Edward smiled seeing Lenin losen up a little.

“Thanks, Edward. Yeah. I would like to start over.” The albino lion said, extending his hand.

Edward shook his hands and said, with a smile, “So, does this means we’re friends?”

Lenin was astonished. He had finally found a friend! “Of course!”

**_‘Get ready for disappointment, then. You barely even know this guy and you’re already accepting him as a friend?’_ **

_‘SHUT UP, already!’_

**_‘Who do you think you’re screaming to?’_ **

This puzzled Lenin and sent chills down his spine. He tried to ignore it for the time being. His good humor was already dissipating thanks to it. But he tried his best to not let it get to him.

_____________________

The rest of the day went uneventful, thankfully. Isaac had been suspended from school that day and the rumors were saying that he got the week in detention as well.

Lenin wanted to say they were too easy on him, but didn’t want to give them any excuse to rat him out to Isaac some other day. At least, Isaac wouldn’t torment him during his lunchtime.

There, him and Edward were able to talk a lot. Edward told him about how his father moved from their state capital to Samiga because he thought that a small town would be a better place for his family.

Edward even joked about being glad that the town had good internet service. In return, Lenin told him that the town also had an electronic department store, but they usually sold only basic things, like TVs, fridges and so on. If Edward wanted to get something specific, like games, he would have to order them through the internet.

“What do you guys do for fun around here?” Edward asked, takin a bit on his food.

“Well, there is a movie theater in town, a pizzeria and there’s a retro arcade as well. Oh, and the bookstore gets all kinds of comics too.” Lenin told him. In reality, Lenin never actually went to these places, save the bookstore. But he hadn’t been there in a long time as well. He was merely repeating what the other teens talked about during lunch.

Lenin had always felt a tinge of jealousy. His family wasn’t exactly rich and he never had the heart to ask his mother for anything. They were able to live comfortably and they always had food on their table. But their house was made of wood and that reason enough for people to mock his him and his family as well.

**_‘Exactly. You’re enough of a burden as it is for your mother.’_ **

That last comment managed to spoil any appetite Lenin still had.

“Are you okay?” Edward asked as he saw Lenin put his fork down, with food still on his plate.

“Yes. I’m just not very hungry at the moment.” Lenin said.

Edward was suspicious that Lenin was hiding something, but he felt like he shouldn’t be too pushy with his new friend. He didn’t want to upset or hurt Lenin as he saw first hand how the other students were mean to him.

But before Edward could say anything, they heard someone saying next to them “Hey, Lenin, how is it going?” a lion showed up seemingly out of nowhere near their table. He was wearing a red shirt with a basketball symbol on his shirt and another, real one, under his arm. This lion’s mane was brown and he had green eyes.

“I’m doing…okay?” Lenin said, feeling uncomfortable.

“That’s great!” he said with a big smile. He then looked at Edward and he immediately said, “I can see you’ve made a new friend. What’s your name?”

“I’m…Edward.”

“Nice meet ya! I’m Jackson!” exclaimed the cheery lion said, extending his hand to Edward, who shook it, awkwardly.

“I’ll leave you be. I gotta go now. See ya later, Lenin.” Jackson said as he left to talk to some other students.

“Who was that?” Edward asked dumbfounded by what just happened.

“He’s the captain of the basketball team.” Lenin replied. Jackson often came and went really fast, but he was always nice to him. “He randomly talks to me somedays. He just comes and goes like that.”

“So, he’s your friend too?” Edward asked, a little too curious.

“No. He’s just extremely polite to everyone. He’s this school's most popular kid. He, at least, never said anything bad about me. That I know of, that is.”

Edward frowned a little, “From my experience, jocks are the worst.”

It was Lenin’s turn to be curious about his new friend, “So, you also got bullied a lot back in your school too?”

Edward nodded, “Usually, most of my bullies were jocks. The only moment they ever nice to me were during exam weeks. They wanted me to help them cheat.”

Lenin felt sorry for him, “And then they were ungrateful afterwards, right?”

Edward shook his head, “The thing is, I always gave them the wrong answers. It was my own way of getting back at them, you know.” He gave a weak smile, but then he added, “What happened afterwards usually involved wedgies and hours inside of a locker.”

“I’m sorry…” Lenin said. The albino lion had always wondered what would have been like to be raised in town. He had always hoped things were better out there, but it’s basically the same everywhere.

“It’s alright. I had a few friends back in my old school and we were always picked on for being, quote, nerds, unquote.” Edward said making gesture with his index and middle fingers in the air.

“I don’t get it why people feel fun by mocking others.” Lenins spoke softly, with a lower tone.

“I don’t know why either. All I know is that jerks exist everywhere. I thought that bullying here wouldn’t be so rampant. That Isaac guy is an asshole.”

“I’ve already told you. Don’t do it. You don’t understand what he’s like. He doesn’t limit himself to just wedgies and lockers. He…likes to hurt.” Lenin explained as his body tensed with old memories.

“But, why hasn’t anyone tell on him to the principal? He got suspended today, didn’t he? He might get expelled even.” Edward explained to his friend, but Lenin just shook his head.

“Expelling him from school isn’t the same as expelling him from the town. He gets his revenge everytime someone feels like being a hero and nobody can prove anything afterwards. You can bet he won’t even spare the twins either, even if they are his underlings.”

“But…” Edward tried to interject.

“He’s a monster. The best anyone can do is not anger him.” Lenin told him and when he saw Edward’s distressed face, he added, “I know this is unfair, but you’ll get used to it. At least think of it this way. Soon, you’ll graduate and move to a college far away from him.

“Nobody deserves to get used being bullied.” Edward countered.

Lenin couldn’t help, but to sigh.

_‘I do…’_

**_‘Finally, you admitted the truth!’_ **

“Can we change subject? This isn’t doing me much good.” Lenin did his best to not show how much this particular thought managed to hurt him.

Edward was a little nervous, seeing Lenin like it, but he did as he was asked.

They started to talk about mundane things, like what TV shows and games they liked.

It was a pleasant change of pace from the usual silence the albino lion was used to. After that, classes went by and Lenin was able to pay a little more attention than he used to.

After the last period ended, Edward and Lenin were outside of school. The afternoon sun was still quite hot with very few clouds in the sky.

“Are you going home now?” the albino lion asked.

“No. My mom said she would be picking me up. She was the one who brought me here and she said she wanted to hear all about my day when going back home.” Edward said, a little embarrassed to admit it. “I know this is a little childish and all.”

Lenin shook his head, “I don’t think so. She wants to be sure you’re okay in this town. It shows how much she loves you.”

He had said it with such a straight face, Edward got even more embarrassed. “Well, I just want them to treat me like an adult.”

Lenin gave a light chuckle at that.

“Hey, do you want to come with us? We’ll drop you by your house.” Edward offered.

“Thank you, but I can’t stay longer. I need to get back home. My mom likes when I get home early.” He offered. Truth to be told, he was also a little worried about Lenin walking around alone.

**_‘Liar. It would be better for her if you never came home at all. Besides, you don’t want your so-called friend to see your house? You want to call him a friend and won’t even trust him with this? You really are a sack of shit, aren’t you?’_ **

Lenin tensed. He didn’t know where this voice kept coming from. He wondered if he should talk to Serena about it and…

**_‘And she would put you in a straightjacket. Imagine you being the talk of the town after that.’_ **

The stress and anxiety were coming back at full force, but he couldn’t let Edward to know about it. He just said, “I really have to go now. See you tomorrow, okay?”

“If you are sure about this…See you tomorrow too, Lenin. It was great meeting you. Take care!” Edward replied waving at him and Lenin waved back.

The albino lion walked as fast as possible while looking around for any sight Isaac or his goons. He really didn’t need them at the moment. Lenin’s heart was racing like crazy. He felt like he didn’t want to come home. Not after the nurse told his mother about him fainting in the hallway and especially after being reminded that other people’s parents cared about their children.

**_‘You can’t seriously blame her for it. She’s also hurting you know. You heard it. The names other people call your mother, especially after your father abandoned you two. You should be eternally grateful she didn’t ditch you as well.’_ **

Yet again, Lenin had to agree with the voice. He couldn’t demand more from his mother. He was already enough of a burden as he was already. He just hoped she won’t explode in his face for what happened.

_____________________

Thankfully, Lenin managed to get home safe and sound. As Lenin approached the door, he could…see? No. He could feel the dread behind the door. Everyday, before leaving home and when he got back, such feeling got stronger and stronger. It felt like the door was covered in dark tendrils to wrap around him and never let him escape from the house he grew up in ever again.

He took some courage and entered his house. His mother was already home, sitting by the kitchen table. As she was looking at her phone. When she noticed that he got home, she called him, “Lenin, come over here. Sit next to me. We need to talk”

The albino lion’s entire body froze in its place for a few seconds as he felt the world spinning around him some more. He dreaded what his mother might say to him. He also felt a pressure at his nape, but he was able to walk towards his mother. He placed his backpack by the floor as he pulled over a chair and sat down.

“Son, the school called me. Again. They said you fainted at the hallway this time.” She said.

To Lenin, it felt more like an accusation, to which he could not deny, “Yes…”

“You were bullied again, weren’t you? I’ve already told you countless times. Keep your head low and try be as invisible as possible. I don’t need the school calling me almost weekly because of something that happens to you.” She said, distressed.

The boy said nothing as he felt his heart sinking. “Do you want to end up locking yourself in your room for another week? People talk, Lenin! They **all** make fun of **us**. At work, nobody wants to so much as talk to me and you don’t see me throwing a fit because of it! You need to go to school! Why can’t you be like the others kids?”

**_‘You know you can never be normal, right?’_ **

_‘Please, don’t…’_

**_‘You mother regrets that you were born. She just said it.’_ **

_‘No, she…’_

**_‘You should do her a favor, after all you did to her. This can end, quite easy, you know.’_ **

_‘Stop!’_

**_‘It’ll be painless.’_ **

_‘Enough!’_

**_‘After your mother goes to sleep. Go to the kitchen and grab the…’_ **

_‘SHUT UP!!!!’_

Lenin was trembling as he started to cry. His eyes were bloodshot red as tears flowed down his cheeks, falling over the table.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’ll do better!” Lenin begged repeatedly.

His mother was shocked at seeing such reaction form him. A wave of regret took over her as she saw her son sobbing uncontrollably. She knew she shouldn’t have said that last bit. She tried to say something, but no words would come out.

“I’m sorry, Lenin, I…didn’t mean it like that. Look. Tomorrow you have a session with Serena. Try talk to her about it. She’ll be able to help you.” She said, trying to cheer him up, yet she was aware it didn’t do him much good.

**_‘There she goes pushing you to your psychiatric. She can’t even be bothered to act like a mother to you.’_ **

This only hurt Lenin even more. But the truth was she simply did not know how to comfort her son. What could she say? “Ignore the bullies and everything will be fine.” They both knew that it would be a lie.

She wanted to hug him and comfort him, but after saying that, how could she? She could not deny she partially resented her own son for being born an albino and bring so much pain into her life. But she also knew Lenin was completely innocent and she hated herself for blaming him for what the other people did to them. She was only trying to make things easier for both of them and in the process, she hurt her son yet again.

Dealing with Lenin’s mental health condition, alongside with the sheer amount of disdain and even hatred people in Samiga had for them, made things so much harder for her. It got to the point where she was also having sessions with Serena to better understand her son’s situation and find ways to deal with her own problems.

She wanted to move to another town with her son and try find a place where they would be accepted, but they didn’t have money for it, not to mention finding a new job would be very hard.

Lenin did his best to control his emotions and just said, “Okay, mom…”

“Go take a shower, son. I’ll start to make dinner for us.”

Lenin just nodded as he wiped his tears, grabbed his backpack and went upstairs.

At the shower, Lenin let all his frustration out as he continued to cry. He felt like nobody cared about him. Nobody would so much as miss him. But he was scared.

 ** _‘Coward.’_** , the voice called him.

Maybe he was. He wanted to live. To be happy. But no matter how hard he tried, nobody would leave him alone. His mind then went back to Edward, but he quickly dismissed him. He had called him a friend earlier, but in the end, it was a lie.

All it would take would be for Isaac to find out about it and he would end their friendship in a heartbeat. Everyone feared Isaac and when Edward realized how terrifying Isaac was, the geeky lion would abandon Lenin to save himself in the end. After all, they weren’t really friends. They were two bullied kids trying to find something in common.

Not that he could blame Edward for it, in any case.

The boy took some time to leave the shower because he wanted to calm himself down more. He didn’t want to upset his mother even further by having another crisis in front of her.

He got dressed and grabbed his books. He had to force himself to finish the homework he got, not just for the sake of his grades. But, also to push all the dark thoughts to the back of his mind, even if it’s just for a couple of hours.

When dinner was ready, his mother called for him and he went downstairs for it. It was a steak with mashed potatoes and some rice. Lenin liked that, but he wasn’t hungry in the slightest. In fact, he felt like throwing up for some time now. However, he could not let his mother know about it, especially after spending so much time making his food.

He forced himself to eat his plate and both him and his mother did not say a word during their meal. His mother tried to talk to him, but the usual conversation starters most families had simply did not work in their family.

She could not ask him how was his day, because she already knew it had been awful. She also could not talk about her day, because he knew it had been painful as well. She opened her mouth to try to apologize again, but Lenin was staring straight down at his food and wouldn’t even glance at her.

 _‘Of course he hates me. I’m a terrible mother…’_ She thought as she turned to her own food.

They finished their food in absolute silence. Once Lenin was done with his plate, he felt like his stomach was screaming in pure agony, but did his best to pull an indifferent face. He started to wash the dishes, but his mother told him he could go to his room because she would finish everything there.

**_‘She thinks you’re too incompetent to so much as wash a few plates.’_ **

But, in reality, his mother just wanted to giver her son some extra free time. Maybe he could go watch a movie on TV or read something. But all Lenin did was to go upstairs, straight to his room.

He didn’t feel motivated to do anything else. He could no longer bear to look at his books, so studying was out of option. He also didn’t find anything fun anymore. He had no friends to call. The lethargy took over his body as he felt more and more tired.

He decided to just go to sleep, since he clearly needed it. He dropped on his bed and closed his eyes, but slumber didn’t seem to come. This only served to stress him even more and his stomachache didn’t help either.

 _‘Why is it that the more I desire to sleep, the more it slips away from me?’_ he had to wonder.

Part of him didn’t want to leave his home tomorrow. While another part of him of him didn’t even want to wake up anymore.

Dark thoughts consumed him until he finally succumbed to his tiredness a couple of hours later.

End of chapter 4


	5. A Helping Hand

“Son, are you awake?” Lenin’s mother said gently tapping him on his shoulder.

“Mom? What is it?” he said as he sat down on his bed. The room was quite bright and Lenin worried he might have overslept.

“Did I miss school? I’m so sorry. I’ll get ready.” Lenin said hurriedly, but his mother put a hand over his shoulder to calm him down.

“Lenin. There’s no school today. Don’t you worry about a thing. I already talked with the principal and with Serena and they both agreed with my decision. You can stay home from now on. It’s the best thing for you.” She told him with a gentle smile.

He blinked a couple of times before asking, “What? Am I going to be homeschooled now? I mean…”

He was uncertain. Certainly, he wouldn’t be bullied anymore, but that would mean he would never leave his house anymore. He didn’t have any reason to. He was a little worried how things would play out. Would his mother be teaching him or would she hire someone to do so?

But then she shook her head and said, “You won’t have to go to school anymore because there’s no need to teach someone as worthless as you.”

“What?” he asked dumbfounded by what his mother was saying,

“I’m going to move to another town, while you remain here. I’ll finally be able to start anew. Sure, I’m not young anymore, but I can still find some happiness.” She told as she gently ruffled his mane on the top of his head.

That was the first time, in a long time she so much as touched him with affection, however, this conversation was terrifying Lenin, “Mom, please. I…I can do better, please don’t leave me."

“No, son you’re misunderstanding one thing. You can’t do better. However, you don’t have to worry about waking up ever again. I know how much you hate every waking moment you have.”

Her calm smile was now terrifying the boy. His body froze as he could only watch her quickly grabbing his pillow and pushing it against his muzzle, pinning him against the bed.

Lenin quickly panicked and tried to scream for his mother to stop, however they were muffled by the pillow.

“Hush now, honey. Just let it happen.” She the pressed the pillow harder against his face.

But he didn’t want to die. He tried to push his mother’s arms away and, but she was much stronger than he was. He then moved to just take the pillow away or to move his face to a position to find some air, but, it was pointless as well.

He was getting desperate. It was getting harder and harder to breath. He tried to claw his mother’s arms to make her let go, but all he got was her saying, “Why are you hurting your mother? Don’t you want to see me happy? I’ll finally be free of you.”

“PLEASE, MOM! STOP DOING THIS! I’LL BE BETTER!” Lenin gave a muffled screams as he kept clawing and kicking, trying to break free.

 **“Why fight the inevitable?”** said a voice, which wasn’t his mother’s.

He couldn’t breath anymore. He was scared. He was going to die.

___________________

The albino lion woke up with a jolt. He couldn’t breath properly. It felt like his entire chest was being constrained by some unknown force. His entire body was paralyzed as the boy’s eyes darted across his room in panic as he looked for his mother, who was nowhere to be found.

His heart was pounding in his chest. He tried to focus on keep breathing and, with time, he could move his body again. He was drenched in sweat and he was suddenly hit with a powerful nausea, which made him puke next to his bed.

He gagged a bit as he threw up. His body was trembling non stop as he felt a deep-seated dread. He was still scared his mother or any other person would pop up from the shadows to hurt him. He looked at his clock and he saw it was 3:47 a.m.

After calming himself a little bit, he realized it had been just a nightmare. Every night was a different nightmare, but they were now getting worse. The boy started to whimper as he curled into a ball on his bed.

He hated himself for thinking that his mother would hurt him. He cried on his pillow wondering why does he have to suffer like that. What did he ever do to deserve this? He tried to remember everything he ever did trying to find some sense as to why he would be punished.

**_‘Bad grades, not paying attention to class, silently judging other people as they judge you, bringing problems to your mother...Would you like me to go on?’_ **

Lenin buried his face against the pillow as he sank deeper in his own misery. More and more dark thought crept into his mind. At that pace, he feared to go insane. He decided to occupy himself with something to stop thinking of those things.

When was about to leave the bed, he noticed he had made a mess on the floor and it was starting to smell.

**_‘You are truly worthless.’_ **

The boy pushed the thought away as he got up and went downstairs. He filled a bucket with water and got back to his room as silently as possible to not wake his mother up. He turned on the light and he started to scrub the floor to clean.

It took him some time, but he cleaned the area. Knowing he would not be able to go back to sleep, he decided to just finish cleaning his room. Anything to keep him occupied.

By the time he finished it, it was almost 6:00 a.m. He turned off the alarm clock as he decided to get ready for school. But before he left his room, seeing the entire place spotless did make him feel a little good about himself, after he stored all the cleaning materials.

**_‘Something so insignificant gives you pride?’_ **

But Lenin decided to ignore it as he prepared everything he needed for school. Once he was done, he got downstairs again and considered skipping his breakfast. His stomach was still upset, but Serena told him to not continue to skip any meals.

He sighed as he looked for something easy to make and to eat. He rummaged through the cabinets until he found a fruit cereal box with an anthropomorphic hyena on the cover and it was called “Phuny Cereal”.

He then made picked a bowl and some milk. He placed the cereal in the bowl first, then he added the milk. He knew it was silly, but he considered this to be the correct way of making cereal.

As he ate, he heard his mother getting to the kitchen. His body froze for a little time, still upset from the nightmare. He did his best to not let his mother know about it, so he acted the most natural he could.

“Good morning, mom.” He said as he forced himself to eat the rest of the cereal.

“Good morning, Lenin. You’re awake early.” She replied eyeing him for a little bit.

“I just woke up and I thought I could get to school earlier. I can hit the library and try study there.” He said. But it was all just a lie. He considered to be advantageous to get to school early because he bet Isaac wouldn’t be around at this hour.

But he did feel bad for lying to his mother about studying. But he did have some questions about his homework. Maybe he could find a teacher or two and ask them about it. This would at least ease his guilty conscience.

“It’s a good thing you’re putting some effort, Lenin. Let’s hope this will help your grades this semester.” She said as she approached the kitchen to make her own plate.

The comment felt like a dagger on Lenin’s heart. He knew he had to put some extra effort to pass, but his lack of motivation to do anything made things so much more difficult for him.

His mother kept giving her son some glances as he went back to eat his cereal. She was aware he went straight to bed after dinner. He did absolutely nothing else for the whole evening.

She wished she could say something else, but, while she was oblivious to the fact Lenin had been up for hours, she saw the change of his mood when she mentioned his grades.

‘ _My son is hurting and I can barely do anything to help him…’_ she thought upset with herself.

When the albino lion finished his meal, he cleaned everything, picked his backpack from the floor and then he told his mother, who was eating some fruit for breakfast. “Bye mom. See you later.”

“Lenin, wait! Did you take your medicine?” she asked before her son reached the door.

The boy froze for a second. He did forget. But would he admit to it? He didn’t want her to think he was some clumsy idiot who forgot about basic things. But doing so would mean to skip his medicine, even after he was set to start taking them as Serena had prescribed him to.

He swallowed and turned back, “I did forget…”

She sighed and told him, a little too loudly, “Lenin, you can’t forget about something so important!”

“I know. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” He replied meekly looking down. He didn’t want to face his mother’s disappointed stare as he went back to the cabinet where the anti-depressants were.

He got a half full glass of water and took the medicine alongside it. He then left the house in a hurry to avoid hearing any further comment form his mother.

She wanted to wish him a good day at school, but he left before she was able to. _‘I messed things up again…’_ she thought, bitterly at herself.

___________________

Lenin dashed towards the school, doing his very best to clear his mind from the creeping thoughts that have been consuming him as of late. He just wanted to focus on his own movement and nothing else.

As he was approaching the school, he saw a certain lion with glasses arriving there as well. The albino lion slowed down as he approached the other lion, “Edward, what are you doing here so early?”

“I woke up quite early today because I wanted to check the town a little by myself before classes started. What about you?” he replied with a smile.

Lenin shifted a little as he lied, “I just wanted to get here early today.”

The lion with glasses also noticed that Lenin’s dark circles seemed a little bigger. He wanted to how the albino lion was feeling, but he decided against it. He feared the other boy might take it the wrong way and get angry at him for butting into his life. So, he decided to talk about something else.

“I see. At least, at this time, there shouldn’t be many people in the library. I wanted to check their whole collections. I want to see if they have some advanced math books.” The geeky lion said as the two of them started to walk towards the school.

“Do you like math that much?” Lenin asked, genuinely surprised someone would have passion towards this subject.

“Yes! I want to be an engineer, like my dad. What about you? What do you want to be?” Edward asked, curious about his friend.

However, Lenin did not know how to answer that. He never gave any thought on what to do after he graduates. If he graduates at all. “I have not decided on what to do yet…” Lenin confessed.

Edward placed a hand over his should and tried to comfort him, “Don’t worry about it. We still have a long time for that.”

“I guess you’re right.” The albino replied, which got a smile from the geeky lion in return.

**_‘How can you be so friendly when you feel so jealous of him? He already knows what he wants for his life and he’ll probably be very successful at that. Not to mention his family is normal!’_ **

_‘So? I already know most people here have good families. Besides, I already accepted I won’t amount to much after high school. This isn’t his fault._ ’ he tried to reason with the creepy voice in his head, but hating the fact that he himself has no real hopes for his own future.

As they got closer to the school, they walked by its white wall and when they were about to turn the corner, Edward asked him, “Hey, Lenin, do you play a tabletop game called Harriet, the Liber-”

But Lenin quickly silenced him with by placing a hand over his mouth. He had heard a terrible familiar voice from the other side.

“How can you two be so useless? Do you have any idea how angry my dad was? You two better make up to me, or I’ll make you two suffer more than that white vermin.” Isaac growled, almost concealed by the trees.

Near him, lying down on the ground, there were the twins, Leandro and Antony. They were clearly hurting from being beaten up by Isaac.

“We didn’t have much of a choice!” Leandro said, which got Isaac kicking his stomach in return.

“Do not talk back to me!” he ordered, infuriated.

“Please, stop! Look, we won’t ever tell on you again. We promise!” Antony begged him. He was worried for his brother who was curled with his hands over his stomach.

“You better remember this. I won’t ever forgive you if you cross me ever again. I’ll make sure you two remember this lesson, forever.” The bully said as he grabbed Antony by his shirt and punched his guy really hard, which almost made him vomit as a reflex.

“I can’t believe this!” Edward whispered as he was going to confront Isaac, but Lenin pushed him back and made him go backwards, outside of Isaac’s field of vision.

“Do you see now what I mean? Isaac will **hurt** you, if you ever tell the principal of the things he does around here. Now, keep in mind they are friends, imagine what he does with those who aren’t.” Lenin explained with the lowest possible voice while he looked for something.

Edward had no idea what was his friend’s objective, but he couldn’t deny he was a little scared after seeing that. Still, he found it unfair that everyone should just bow down to a bully like him and do nothing about it.

“There! Help me take this near the wall.” The albino lion said pointing at a somewhat big rock.

Edward understood what Lenin wanted to do and asked him, dumbfounded, “You want us to jump over this wall? What if we get caught by a teacher?”

“Better a teacher, than Isaac. Besides, this isn’t the first time I do this to avoid him. I can climb the lower part of the wall without the stone. But the wall is taller on this side.” He countered.

Edward was sure he would not be able to do such a thing on his own. The geeky lion was nervous at doing something so risky like this, but he couldn’t really argue against Lenin’s logic.

The duo then grabbed the stone, which was, fortunately, not that heavy for the two of them. They placed it over near the wall and Lenin went first. He stepped on the stone and after steading himself he jumped and grabbed onto the ledge and pushed himself to stand on top of the wall and he quickly jumped to the other side.

He wasn’t athletic by any means, but he gained some experience in jumping without smashing his own face on the dirt. _‘If only I could do this well in P.E._ ’ he thought, bitterly.

Edward, however, was a little too scared to jump to the other side. He should have mentioned that he was a little scared of heights to his friend, but he doubted it would matter at this point.

“What are you doing? Just jump over. It’s not that high!” Lenin hurried him, still using a low tone of voice. “Isaac is going to see you, if you stay there too long. Just jump, I’ll catch you!” He finished raising his arms, as he got more alarmed at being caught.

Edward hesitated for a little while before he finally jumped, crashing against Lenin, making them both fall on the ground. Lenin clenched his teeth from the pain as he pushed Edward off him.

Lenin was the one who ended up getting the full blown of the impact. He wasn’t strong enough to stop Edward from knocking him as well, which led to both boys groaning in pain on the ground.

“Sorry, Lenin! I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” Edward asked as he tried to recover from the fall. But the albino lion couldn’t reply to that.

“What the hell was that?” They overheard Isaac shouting from the other side of the wall.

**_‘What a useless piece of shit! He made so much noise, Isaac must be on his way here. What a friend he ended up being.’_ **

But Lenin tried to reason with himself that Edward never had to do this kind of thing before to escape from a beating. He had to hurry just so they won’t get caught. He got up as fast as he could. Then, he grabbed Edward’s hand and helped him to get up and dashed towards the other side of the school, dragging his friend as far away as possible form the wall, in case Isaac decided to check who was on the other side.

The two managed to circle around the school and arrive at the entrance. Since none of the bullies were near, Lenin allowed himself to breath in relief. But the other students, who were arriving at the school were giving them weird glances and snickering as they looked at Lenin.

The albino lion didn’t understand at first why, until Edwards said, “Lenin, there’s some grass on your mane and clothing.”

Lenin looked down at his clothes and groaned as he turned to go back outside, but he was topped by Edward, “Where are you going?”

“I need to brush these things off me! If I do that here, the janitor will be upset having to clean the mess.” He said, a little too annoyed by it.

Edward felt guilt that his friend got into this state, but he also had to remind him, “But, Lenin, won’t Isaac see you there?”

“No. He’s most likely still waiting for me by the trees.”

“Waiting for you? For what?” Edward asked, immediately regretting it, as Lenin turned at him with a displeased expression.

“After what you just saw today, do you really need to ask?” His patience was running thin at that moment. But seeing Edward’s expression made him regret his tone a little bit.

**_‘No! This idiot deserves all the berating in the world.’_ **

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to…” he shifted, clearly uncomfortable, realizing this was probably a daily issue for him.

He felt at fault for snapping at Edward. _‘It’s not like we’re really friends, after all’_. Lenin sighed and said, “It’s okay.”

**_‘No, it’s not.’_ **

“I’ll be back in a moment. You can go ahead to the library.” Lenin told him.

“But…wouldn’t it be better for you, to do it in the bathroom? Just to be safe.” Edward suggested.

The albino lion stopped in his tracks as he realized his idea was probably better. “Thanks.”

The lion with glasses smiled, a little relieved that Lenin wasn’t that much upset with him. He couldn’t believe the kind of stress the albino lion had to face on a daily basis just to avoid bullies.

“See you later at the library, then?” Edward asked, hopeful, he would take the invitation.

“No. Sorry. I need to get some stuff done first. Maybe we can catch up during lunch. See you later.” Lenin said to excuse himself to go to the bathroom.

“Until later, then.” Edward said, feeling disappointed. But he couldn’t exactly blame Lenin for being in a foul mood. He then went over to the library, while Lenin went to the bathroom.

At the library, the moment Edward was going to enter it, another student left it at the same time and collided with Edward, dropping the books he was carrying. Edward had to wonder if he had some kind of magnet for this kind of situation.

Edward apologized and helped the chubby student to pick his books up and noticed that, among the books, there was a comic book intitled “Sandman”.

“Hey, you like this comic too? What’s your favorite character?” Edward asked enthusiastically. Not even one among his friends, at his old school, liked this comic.

The chubby teen with an orange mane grabbed his books and comic and told him, “Not a word of this to anyone. You never saw me here, alright?”

“But why…”

“Pretend this never happened, you hear? Isaac will kill me if he finds out. You understand that, right?”

 _‘Why does everything bad in this school must revolve around one single person?’_ Edward thought. He then said, “Yeah, I know about him already. Don’t worry. My lips are sealed.”

“I should have placed them into my backpack, but I was in a hurry. I should have been more careful.” He kept muttering to himself. He didn’t recognize this teen, but by the looks of it, he didn’t have any hard feelings, but he still feared he might be blackmailed later on.

“Seriously, don’t worry about it. I don’t want anyone to get hurt on my account.”

“Thanks, I owe you one.” He said, still feeling a little suspicious. Very few people were actually kind to him, given who his “friends” are.

“Why does he hate comic books, anyway?” Edward asked, curious.

This other lion raised an eyebrow at the question, as if it was something that was common knowledge for everyone in the school.

“I’m new here, so I don’t know much about what’s going on around here. The more I learn about this Isaac guy, the more I hate him. From what I learned, he’s making a friend of mine suffer a lot. His everyone else’s lives, that is.” Edward explained picking up the other teen’s confusion on the matter.

The other boy visibly relaxed a little, “Ah! That’s why I didn’t recognize you. I never thought people would actually move INTO this town.” He said, with a chuckle. “As for your question, Isaac considers comic books to be things only losers read. He even dislikes people who study much, so I have to tiptoe around him. There are times when I have to lie to him and say I cheat to get my good grades, just so he doesn’t think I’m a nerd. If you don’t want to be bullied to oblivion, you better not do anything that picks his interest. He has a bizarre sense of smell for things he considers to be for weaklings.”

Edward was mortified by this. This Isaac guy should seriously go see a doctor or something. He can’t possibly be right in the head to behave like this. Then, the lion with glasses realized he hadn’t introduced himself yet, “I’m Edward, by the way.”

“My name is Harry. It’s nice to meet you.”

___________________

At the bathroom, Lenin was cleaning himself in a stall. He was getting tired from removing so much grass from his mane. He knew it would be easier if he used the bathroom mirrors for it, but he really couldn’t bring himself to do it. He was at least grateful that he still had some time before classes started.

He hated what he saw in their reflection. This is basically the reason why he hadn’t taken a single picture in years now and he doesn’t even let his mother hang any old picture of him either.

**_‘If you think looking at the mirror is bad, imagine what everyone else must think having to look at you everyday.’_ **

Lenin closed his eyes and tried to get a hold of himself. Blindly brushing his mane with his fingers would take the whole day to remove everything. He did have to take a look at a mirror to get this over with. He couldn’t spend the whole day in the bathroom. At least his clothes were now clean.

He got out of the stall and moved over towards one of the sinks. He felt his muscles going rigid as he stared at the face that had brought him so much misery in his life, himself.

**_‘Look at yourself. Can you really blame people for calling you ugly all the time? Put yourself in their feet.’_ **

Lenin hated having to keep staring at himself, but he at least could pinpoint the rest of the grass stuck on him. He tried to be as fast as possible, but he froze up when the bathroom door opened.

“Blimey, Lenin! Are you okay? I’ve been looking for you!” Jackson asked as he approached the albino lion, who was holding some grass blades on his hand.

“I’m fine, Jackson.” He managed to reply as he dumped the grass into the trash can near the sink.

“People are saying the new kid beat you up behind the school. Is that true?” the athlete asked, feeling distressed over what he had heard and angry at Edward.

Rumors. Lenin loathed rumors. People have this strange fascination of talking about other people’s lives and even make up false stories about them. It’s almost like they enjoy to speak ill things about others, while secretly wishing they were all true.

“Nobody bullied me this time, Jackson. You don’t have to worry about it.” He just replied, reluctantly turning his gaze back to the mirror to finish cleaning himself.

“Then why is there grass all over you?” he asked as he pointed t a place on the albino lion’s back. Lenin, instinctively, placed his hand over his back and found more of it. If it weren’t for Jackson, he wouldn’t have noticed he had missed some parts on his clothing.

“Wait…this time?” the jock finally added. “Who’s still bullying you? Is Edward doing something bad to you? I thought he was a good guy when I met him yesterday.”

Lenin said nothing. He wanted to bite his tongue off for the slip up. “I misspoke, Jackson. Really. Edward is actually a really nice person.” Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to just get away from the jock, he just added, “You know that people still don’t like me that much, but that’s about it.”

A little bit of truth mixed with a lie almost always worked him. Too bad, the basketball player wasn’t going to just let it go, “Then who’s still doing it? I already told everyone on the team to stop. Is it one of them? I can talk with the other students from the football team too. Please, just tell me, who’s picking on you.”

“Why do you care so much?” Lenin finally snapped. He did not understand why this guy was so nice to him.

**_‘It’s probably him feeling guilty or just trying to look virtuous in front of the others. It’s probably the latter. Imagine him going around saying how much of a good person he is for helping a sorry loser like you.’_ **

Then, again, he did notice that people from the basketball team did stop mocking him. Looking back at his memories, nobody mocked or ridiculed him everytime Jackson was in the same room as he was.

Jackson did look a little hurt by that. “Because it’s wrong? I don’t like seeing people going about hurting others for no reason.”

 **“So, you have a savior complex or something? Where were you when I was getting beaten up? This just a bravado to make yourself look good for others, isn’t it?”** Lenin said, not even recognizing his own voice. He felt like it was another person talking through him. Was the owner of that strange voice taking over his body? Was he going crazy?

 _‘LEAVE MY BODY ALONE!_ ’ Lenin screamed in his own mind, feeling terrified.

 ** _‘…What do you think I am?’_** the dark voice replied back.

Lenin didn’t know what to think or do. Jackson was not visibly upset by what Lenin had said, nor he had found anything strange in his voice either. “So, you too just judge me, like everyone else?”

“What are you talking about? I’ve been judged from the moment I was born."

Jackson approached him, “I know I can’t hold a candle to what you’ve been through, Lenin. But you’re not the only person who’s insulted their back, you know.”

This caught the albino lion off guard, “What? You’re like, the model student of the school, Mr. perfection.”

The basketball player scoffed at the nickname, “Yeah, people do call me that and I hate it. I hate that people say I’m being phony when I’m being kind. I hate that people assume how I should behave just because I’m the captain of the team.”

“What do you mean by that?” Lenin asked, not understanding how could anyone ever speak ill of Jackson. Every girl in school fawned over him, he had good grades and he was a great athlete and, form what he knew, his family was quite well-off.

 ** _‘Jealousy. You felt it too.’_** The voice replied, a little too gently, compared to the other times.

“They think, I must act like Brendan more, you know, the football team’s captain. They say I should date only cheerleaders, be loud and not make friends with unpopular kids, among other, less nice, things. I wonder what they would say, if they found out I’m too shy to talk to the girl I have a crush on.” He explained as he looked at himself on the mirror for a little bit.

“People like to pretend they’re friends with me, only to try use my popularity. And there are those that resent me for it. Brendan, for example, has this weird rivalry with me that came out of nowhere, all because he wants to be more popular than me. As if I even asked to be the talk of the school.” He sighed at the end.

Lenin now put the pieces together. He did notice Jackson rarely ate together with the other “cool kids” and he did hear how people talked how Jackson shouldn’t waste time with school’s “deject”, also known as himself.

“But why don’t you just tell hem to get lost and move on with your life?” He had to ask.

“But I did. I constantly tell them to mind their own business, but some misinterpret that as me being super cool, for some reason only God knows, and the cycle starts anew.” The athlete explained exasperated.

“At least, they don’t try to make your life a living hell on a daily basis. Some may talk ill of you, but they still respect you enough to never touch you.” The albino lion countered.

“I know…You don’t deserve any of it. You’re a nice person, Lenin. You are so much better than those morons that say mean things about you.”

“Why do you say that?” Lenin asked, confused as to why anyone would say such thing about him. On the contrary, he sometimes saw himself as someone who deserved all the nasty things thrown his way, even if he despised it.

“It would be so simple to just give into the anger. You always try to be nice to everyone. I want to help you, you know. Please, tell me who’s bullying you. I’ll make it stop.” Jackson said, seriously. He meant every word he had said to Lenin. This kind of abuse had to stop.

**_‘He doesn’t mean it. And even if he does, he’ll just end up as another victim of Isaac's.’_ **

“Thank you, Jackson, but it’s better if you don’t get involved. It’s nothing I can’t handle.” Lenin lied through his teeth. He wanted to beg him for help, but he was aware of the consequences, it would bring.

Jackson, however, wasn’t going to let it go, “Dude, if you’re worried I can’t beat this person or persons, if it comes to that, know that I’m much stronger than I look like. Brendan is still salty that I keep beating him in arm wrestling.” He finished with a confident smile.

Lenin, however, couldn’t meet his gaze and just looked down, “Please, just don’t get involved. I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I don’t want you to get hurt because of me. You don’t know what this person is capable of.”

The two stayed in uncomfortable silence for some time, until Jackson said, “It’s Isaac, isn’t it? I’m sorry, Lenin. I should have done something about him a long time ago.”

Lenin, however, was panicking over it, “Please, don’t do it! Even if you beat him up, he’ll just take out his anger on me!”

That was all the confirmation Jackson needed, but he was worried about the other teen. He thought he could just beat Isaac up and show him how bad it feels and that would be the end of it. To tell the truth, Jackson never actually saw Isaac bullying others, all he ever heard were whispers and rumors and Jackson wanted to assume they were exaggerations. But he now knew things were too serious to be left alone.

Still, he didn’t wish to bring more distress to Lenin. He had to think very carefully on how to proceed to end all this bullying. “Fine. I won’t confront Isaac. For **now**.” He heavily emphasized the last word, to make it clear the matter wasn’t over yet.

The albino lion still feared what the jock might do to make things worse, but he hoped the jock would end up forgetting about it.

“Thank you.” Lenin said, softly, smiling a little bit. Despite everything, he was still thankful for what Jackson was willing to do to help him out.

Jackson smiled back and then he remembered there was another thing he could do to help him out, “Hey, Lenin, would you like some help training for the P.E classes?”

“Huh?” the albino lion muttered, taken aback at the sudden change of subject.

“I’ve overheard the teacher berating you the other day about how you are not doing so well in the class. So, I thought I could help you out with that. We can train after classes.” The athlete explained to him.

“But doesn’t the gym close down after all classes are over?” Lenin asked, hoping Jackson wasn’t about to suggest breaking into the school at night or something like it.

Jackson nodded, but he explained what he had in mind, “Well, the coach trusts me with the keys when I want to practice by myself after all classes are over. He lets me do it under the condition I never break anything and put everything back to their place once I’m done. Being the MVP of last year’s state championship does have its perks.” He finished with a small laugh.

Lenin didn’t know what to say. “I...uh…Won’t this be a bother to you?”

However, Jackson assured him, “Nah. It’s going to be fun. I’ll help you improve and you’ll show coach what you’re capable of doing and pass with flying colors.”

“But I don’t think I can…I’m just not good at sports.”

**_‘Or studying.’_ **

Jackson approached Lenin and placed a hand over his shoulder, “Don’t worry about it. It’s all about practice. It’s very hard at the beginning, but once you pick up the pace, it’ll become second nature to you. So, what do you say?”

Lenin stood there for a few seconds. Part of him expected the voice to chime in to insult Lenin or discourage him, but it didn’t, for some reason. “Sure…I would like that.”

Jackson beamed in happiness at hearing that. “That’s great! Wanna start today?”

Lenin wanted to say yes, but he remembered he had to go to serena’s clinic after school. “Can it be tomorrow? I already had some…plans for today.” He didn’t want to tell Jackson about his psychiatric. Part of him still feared he would be seen as crazy for it.

“No problem, my friend. I’ll get you in shape in no time. You’ll see.” He said it with such confidence, Lenin wanted to believe him. And he also felt quite happy at being called a friend by another person as well.

 ** _‘He’s helping you out of pity, you moron!’_** the voice finally came back, but Lenin managed to completely ignore it this time around.

Jackson’s wristwatch started to beep, alerting him that there were only ten minutes left for classes to start. He kept it that way to stop him from forgetting about classes, in case he got distracted with something, which was often, since he liked to chat with people in the hallways.

“It’s time for us to go to classes now. Thank goodness, the school doesn’t serve breakfast, otherwise the bathroom would be full by now.”

Both teens ended up laughing heartly at the thought.

End of chapter 5


	6. Appointment

After talking to Jackson, Lenin’s mood had improved a little. He actually had something to look forward to, in a long time. He hoped it would be enough for him to not to fail P.E., but he pushed the thought away for the time being.

As he arrived at his Math class, he sat in the middle row, opened his notebook and waited for the teacher to start. However, this class only reminded him of Edward and Lenin felt his guilty returning. He wanted to apologize properly, but he didn’t ask him if they were going to have classes together. He would have to wait until lunchtime to be able to talk to him.

**_‘That is, if he still wants to talk to you.’_ **

Lenin feared this and hoped there was still time to salvage his friendship. He was brought back to reality when the bell rang and the teacher started the class. Lenin was a little surprised at the fact nobody was whispering about him, which allowed him to focus more on the classes.

Too bad, he was struggling to understand the subject. Homework aside, he didn’t really study anything from the week he missed school and now he was paying the price for it. He always struggled with Math and now, he was quite lost. At least, his next period was Art and then History, which were subjects he was more comfortable with. Music, Geography, History and Biology were his favorite subjects.

Lenin used to like to draw too, but the teacher sucked all the fun of it a long time ago. The albino couldn’t decide if her comments about him being a good artist because he was tormented were because she was mean or because she was downright clueless about her surroundings.

At the very least, Lenin was able to make several notes and he’ll have to hit the books to better understand them. He could try to just memorize them and vomit them on a test, but he actually wanted to learn it.

After the class ended, Lenin got up and moved on to his next class. However, as Lenin was going through the hallway, someone had, from behind, grabbed him by the arm and shoved him to the side against the wall. The impact made him gasp in pain. He didn’t even notice he didn’t yell or scream. Lenin had always done his best to not alert teachers or other people, which could make his situation worse for him.

“How the hell did you get to school without me seeing?” Isaac demanded as Lenin turned to see who had done that to him.

The bully was frowning deeply. He was still in foul mood because of the previous day. By his side, there were Leandro and Antony, who were just plain uncomfortable being there. One of the twins seemed to be in a lot of pain. However, Lenin couldn’t tell which one.

**_‘Why do you even care? Are you feeling sorry? Did you forget how many times they helped Isaac beating you up?’_ **

He agreed, willingly, with the voice at that moment. Memories of them taunting and beating Lenin resurfaced, making him lose any sympathy for the twins at the moment. The albino lion then responded quickly, “I just arrived here at 5 a.m.”

He prayed Isaac hadn’t arrived that early at school in order to not see through his lie, which had worked, but not to the extent Lenin had hoped for, “I see. Are you so scared of me you sacrificed your sleep thinking you can avoid me, you little shit? Guess what? Don’t start thinking you can avoid me just because I got detention. Just because I didn’t get you before classes, it doesn’t mean I can’t catch you after them. Or between them.”

The bully turned to the twins and told them, “Keep a lookout for teachers and stall them loudly before they see me. And where is that fatso? He always bails when it suits him. I guess I gotta remind him who’s the boss around here too later.”

The twins did as they were told. Then, Isaac approached Lenin’s ear and whispered to him, “And don’t get any ideas form what these two morons did. If you ever tell on me, I’ll kill you.”

The albino lion’s body petrified in sheer terror. He couldn’t even breath at the threat. His eyes were open wide as his body trembled and cold sweat took over him. Seeing the result he wanted, Isaac smirked in satisfied, “Good. At least you’re smart enough to understand that you must never cross me.”

The rest of the students just rushed overpast them, not wanting to get involved in that. Some even felt sorry for Lenin, but nobody dared helped him.

Then after a brief moment, Isaac remembered something else, “I’ve heard an interesting thing today. I’ve heard that the nerd beat you up behind school early today. Is that true?”

Lenin had a hard choice at the moment. Telling him the truth would make him discover he lied about how he got to school unnoticed and agreeing with him, could make things so much worse for Edward. He didn’t want to give him an unfair reputation. He opened his mouth to answer it, but no sound came out. He was terrified of the consequences of both answers.

Isaac got annoyed at the silence, but he ended up smirking again, “I see. I see. You probably thought the nerd would be your friend, but it turned out, not even a loser like him wanted to be near you. Did you forget what I’ve always been telling you? Nobody will ever be your friend.”

Lenin wanted to cry. ‘he’s right, isn’t he? Everyone only talks to be out of pity. They feel sorry that I’m such a loser and they just can’t help it.’

Isaac was relishing in seeing the albino suffer and he wanted to end this encounter before a teacher found them, “I’ll have to be going now, but I’ll leave you with a small gift for you to remember me by.”

Isaac clenched his fist and he was going to punch Lenin on his gut. Hard. The boy was bracing himself, when he heard Antony saying, loudly, from around the corner.

“Hey there, teacher, I have some questions about yesterday classes.”

Isaac made a “tch” sound with his mouth and he let Lenin go. If the teacher found the albino on the floor writhing in pain on the floor, they would know it was him. Isaac then just told him, “This isn’t over.”

The bully then bailed out, leaving both twins behind. Leandro gave Lenin a quick look, which Lenin thought it resembled guilty, before going towards his brother. The albino lion just considered it was probably him misreading the situation.

He was so scared, it felt like his legs were going to give away and he would fall on the floor. He kept leaning against the wall for a couple of minutes before he was able to regain control over his body.

His legs were still wobbly when he got to the next class, just a few seconds before the bell rang. From that point he was barely able to focus on anything. There was no escape. Isaac would always win in the end.

**_‘There’s still one option to get away from it all…’_ **

_‘SHUT UP!!!!!’_ Lenin shouted in his mind, knowing what the voice was getting at.

Lenin felt like a drone, it was as if his soul was detached from his own body as he just sat in body only during the following classes, doing just the bare minimum effort, in order for the teachers not call his attention.

The albino lion ended up overhearing people spreading rumors about Edward and him fighting. _‘Don’t these people have anything better to do than talk about my life and spread a misunderstanding?’_

He was now dreading having to face Edward. Were people being mean to him as well because of it? Or worse, would Isaac try to recruit him to his gang? If this happened, would Edward accept it to avoid being bullied? Lenin prayed he wouldn’t do such a thing, after all the geeky lion did have a dislike for bullies as well.

Lenin just hoped Edward wouldn’t do anything stupid to anger Isaac.

He ended up not having any classes on common with Edward during at morning, so his only chance was to talk to him during lunchtime.

When the time finally came, Lenin got his lunch and couldn’t see Edward anywhere in the cafeteria. He felt worried. The albino lion sat down to eat and he scanned the area between each bite, but there was no sign of his friend.

**_‘Why are you calling him your friend. He ditched you, like you ditched him!’_ **

Lenin was crestfallen, and then he just stared at his own plate and tried to focus only on finishing his meal. His stomach wasn’t upset this time around, but he wasn’t very hungry either.

Suddenly, there was a notice of something hitting the table in front of him, and when Lenin raised his head, in alarm, he saw Edward sitting there. The geeky lion was gasping a little for air as he said, with a sheepish smile, “Sorry I’m late. I was talking to the History teacher about a few books he could recommend about ancient civilizations and I lost track of time. I feared I was going to miss lunch at the rate.”

“Lunch break lasts for two hours here. You don’t have to worry about it. Besides, there are clocks every hallway in this school.” Lenin explained. He was also curious at seeing someone who took pleasure in studying. Everyone at school did it out of obligation. As far as he knew, that is.

The albino lion had to admit he didn’t really know anyone. He didn’t know what anyone else liked or disliked.

 _‘And nobody knows me either…’_ he added in his mind.

“Yeah. I guess I’m still getting used to this place. At my previous school, we only got one hour during lunch break.” The lion with glasses explained.

“Things were quite rushed there, it seems.” Lenin asked, wanting to know more about him and how things are outside of his town.

“Tell me about it. There was always a line and it got to the point some students just brought their own lunches from home just to not have to deal with it.” He explained.

Lenin listened with attention as Edward told him about his old city. Lenin was actually found life in the city to be quite alluring, to tell the truth. He always wondered how would be like to live in a big city, filled with things to do and places to see. But that was, if Lenin could muster the strength to actually find something he wanted to do. Having options is not the same as actually wanting to do any of them. Still, he was desperate for any change in his life.

“Oh, and, uh…Lenin? Did you hear what some students were talking about us? They are saying that I beat you up and other stuff like it.” Edward asked, a little worried that they were spreading such false and nasty rumors about him and his friend.

Lenin now noticed that some were gossiping while pointing at them eating together. This angered him and he wanted it to just stop. But he didn’t have the courage to go to their faces and tell them to quit it.

Edward the continued, “And the strangest thing was that Jackson guy from yesterday going around telling other to shut their mouths about this gossip and he adamantly told them that it was false and was just a misunderstanding.”

Lenin couldn’t help, but to smile a little, until Edward continued, “Why would a popular guy try to do it? Was he the one that started the rumor in first place and now he wants to pretend to be a good guy?”

The albino lion had to quickly correct him, “No. Jackson isn’t like that. He came to me earlier and asked me about it. I told him that it wasn’t anything like that. He was actually angry that people were spreading lies about us.”

Edward raised an eyebrow, “Are you sure? I have never seen an actual nice jock before. You should be careful. Some just like to pretend to be nice when they want something from you.”

Lenin froze a little after that. He didn’t want to suspect Jackson. He wouldn’t offer to give him lessons if he wanted something out of him. What could he even do for Jackson anyway?

So, he pushed it to the back of his mind, like all other bad thoughts which have been popping up in his mind lately.

“I…really think he means it. Let’s wait and see, then.” Lenin replied.

Edward, however, wasn’t really convinced, “But, if he is plotting something evil against you, there’ll be nothing you can do to stop it.”

Lenin had to think for a while before finally answering it, “If Jackson is secretly evil, then it doesn’t really make a difference. He’ll be just one more to the list.”

The geeky lion frowned deeply at that, “Nobody should get used to it, Lenin! You certainly shouldn’t act like being abused is something normal!”

The albino lion wanted to agree, but he couldn’t. As the dark voice had previously reminded him, he was far from being perfect. And he was responsible for bringing misery to his own mother, so, if anything, he felt like he deserved the abuse for that.

However, he didn’t comment on it, instead, he changed subject for something he intended to say to him from the start of the conversation, “I’m sorry for earlier.”

The geeky lion blinked a couple of times, not understanding why his friend was apologizing, “Sorry for what, Lenin?”

“For getting angry at you. You didn’t do anything wrong. You’re new around here, so you didn’t get used to avoiding Isaac by any means necessary.” He explained, looking at his now empty plate.

Edward was also feeling guilty, especially for falling on top of him, so he said, “If someone needs to apologize for that, it’s me. You got hurt trying to break my fall and now people are saying horrible things about us because of my clumsiness.”

They stood in silence for a little while. Lenin’s mouth opened, his jaw was trembling a little at the question he wanted to make, “Are we still friends?”

He dreaded the answer with all his might, however, the answer alleviated his worries, “Huh? Of course we are, Lenin.”

The albino lion felt like a huge weight was lifted off his back at that moment. “Thank you…” he muttered and Edward smiled in return.

Lenin then decided to change subjects once more to avoid feeling even more embarrassed, “Did you find what you were looking for at the library?”

The geeky lion nodded and he said, “Yes. And I think I also made a new friend there!”

**_‘Wow. He’s already trying to replace you even after he just said he wanted to be your friend.’_ **

_‘Shut up! People can have more than one friend you know. I’m the abnormality around here.’_ Lenin quickly countered, feeling like he actually won this round against the voice, who didn’t say anything back at him.

“Who was it?” Lenin asked, a little too curious.

Edward scanned the area and pointed on the direction of two lions over there, “It was that guy over that. We talked a lot about comics. He was really scared of Isaac finding out about it, though.”

When Lenin looked over, he saw Harry with another student, whose name he didn’t know, however he recognized him as being the teen who likes to sell comic books, which aren’t sold at the store in the town. Lenin simply assumed it was that other kid Edward was talking about and that Harry was probably harassing him or something.

The albino lion was glad his new friend was adjusting well enough in the town, so he didn’t inquire any further.

Edward then asked him, “Hey, Lenin, do you want to do something after school?”

Lenin was astonished at the proposal. Nobody actually ever invited him to hang out before. Ever since Michael, that is. He wanted to say yes, but he couldn’t. He had to go to Serena’s clinic that day and tomorrow he was going to train with Jackson. He didn’t want to admit he went to a psychiatric to his new friend. What if he started to think he was crazy, or something?

And he knew that Edward probably had very good reasons to dislike jocks, so he didn’t want to mention Jackson was going to help him train for the P.E. classes.

“Sorry, I’m…a little busy today and…tomorrow…But I can definitely do it on Thursday!” after being a little self-conscious at his own eagerness, he quickly added “If you can on Thursday, I mean.”

“Sure thing, Wanna come to my house, then? We can do homework together.” Edward offered, however Lenin had to admit it to him.

“I…uh…am not very good at studying. I think I’ll just end up delaying your own homework.”

However, Edward didn’t mid that at all, “There’s no issue. I can totally help you out, if you don’t know something.”

Lenin felt like he didn’t deserve any of this so he ended up asking, “Are you sure? I mean, I really don’t want to bother you. Besides, won’t your parents mid that a total stranger came to your house?”

 ** _‘I think you mean, a total freak instead!’_** the voice added, but was ignored.

“It’ll be fine. I used to bring friends all the time back at my old place.” Edward said, quickly regretting the words as he remembered what the nurse had told him on the day before. In Edward’s mind, he realized this was probably the first time someone invited him to another person’s house.

They were friends and Edward wanted to show Lenin life shouldn’t be this bleak. They weren’t going to just study, obviously, but Edward did hear passing comments from other students how Lenin was going to “totally flunk this year” and he wasn’t going to just sit idly. Lenin probably had problems that hindered his studies and he could give him a push to help him surpass said issues.

Lenin smiled and deeply thanked him for that. He wasn’t affected by the fact Edward was more social than he was. He already accepted that. His only fear were his parents and if they shared the same values as their son. But given how Edward is, they probably were nice people too.

They chatted for the remaining of the lunchtime at the cafeteria and, for some reason, Isaac and the twins were nowhere to be seen there, not that Lenin had any complaints at being freed from them for a couple of hours.

After classes resumed, Lenin was able to focus a little more, however, the subjects were still a little difficult for him to fully grasp. Nevertheless, his performance in these afternoon classes was much higher than previous times.

When the final bell rang, Lenin remembered Isaac had to go to detention, so, for at least one week, he wouldn’t have to deal with him assaulting him after school was over.

He waited for Edward to show up and chatted with him for a little while, since his appointment was in an hour and he wouldn’t take that much time to reach the clinic.

As Edward was leaving school, he noticed that Lenin was looking at another direction, curious he asked, “Aren’t you going home now, Lenin?”

He then quickly lied, “I have to do a few things for my mom before going home.”

“Do you want company then?” the geeky lion offered.

This made Lenin panic a little bit as he said, “Thanks a lot for it, but there’s no need. It’ll be a giant drag and believe me you won’t want to be there.”

Edward found it curious that he was being too vague about it, but realized it was probably something personal that he wasn’t ready to share just yet. He decided to give Lenin his space and he said, “If you’re sure, alright then. See you tomorrow, Lenin!”

“See you, Edward.” He replied back as he waited for him to not longer being in his line of sight before going to the clinic.

___________________

Serena’s clinic was located to the south of the town. Lenin always looked behind to make sure no other acquaintance, or bully, from school was following him. He absolutely wanted to hide the fact that he went there weekly for treatment with his psychiatric from everyone.

Most already ridiculed him for having depression. He didn’t want people calling him crazy on top of it.

**_‘But you are.’_ **

_‘Shut up!’_

**_‘Is this all you know what to say? Are you a broken record?’_ **

He frowned deeply. When he was approaching the clinic, he quickly surveilled the area to make sure nobody he knew was around. Then, he rushed towards the entrance and then quickly entering it. Now came the second worst part, the fear of running into someone else who also needed a doctor there.

The clinic used to be a house, which was adapted for several doctors. There was a dentist, an ophthalmologist and an endocrinologist working there as well. The town had other clinics like these and even a hospital as well.

The entrance had some chairs for people waiting their appointments and a desk by the wall on the opposite, where the receptionist was. So, Lenin always had to be sure nobody else was also there. Everytime he overheard someone saying they were coming over for appointment or the same day he had one, he had to call Serena to reschedule and when he stumbled upon someone else, he had to pretend he was there for some other doctor. Luckily, for him, the receptionist played along.

“Hello, Lenin. How are you today?” said the receptionist, who was a kind, old lioness with greying fur.

She was already used at the nervousness of this young lion and she felt a little sorry for the boy, because of how embarrassed he was for coming over. In her eyes, there was no shame in needing help, but, still, she did her best to help him out.

“I’m doing okay, Mrs. Jones. Can you tell Miss Serena I arrived?” he was able to say more openly, given how he didn’t recognize anyone there, but still with a low tone of voice when he got near the receptionist.

The old lady nodded, “Sure, sweetie. Just a minute.” She picked the phone from the desk and talked to Serena about Lenin’s arrival. After she hang up, Mrs. Williams told Lenin, “She’s waiting for you, Lenin.”

The albino lion thanked her as he went through the door, right next to the desk and then climbed up a set of stairs on his right and walked towards the first door by the stairs, on his right.

He knocked the door and when he heard a “Come in”, he got inside of the room. It was spacious enough. It had a big, comfortable for Serena and what Lenin could only describe as a “fancy looking couch” for her patients.

She was by a cabinet organizing some files when Lenin entered the room, “Good afternoon, Lenin. How are you? Would you like some water?” she offered as she picked his file.

“No, thanks. I’m good.” He said as he moved to the couch and just sat on it.

As she picked her clipboard as well, she told him he could lie down, if he wanted. She always offered that and he always refused it. They did this little “script” before they begun for almost a year now.

This kind of irritated Lenin a little. He wondered if she was doing this on purpose, but the only thing he replied with was, as he sat down, “I’m good like this.”

She smiled patiently at him and asked, “How are you doing, Lenin? How was your week?”

**_‘Again, with pointless questions.’_ **

“It’s been the same as before, just…” Lenin trailed off, unsure if he should tell her not.

This picked her interest, so she tried to encourage him, “Did something new happened? Would you like to share it with me?”

He diverted his look from her and stared at floor, “No…it’s nothing major, really.”

Serena said gently, “Lenin, please, look up. You don’t have to feel scared of meeting another person’s gaze.”

**_‘If you do it, you’ll be able to see them judging you. Keep your head down. Just like your mother had taught you.’_ **

“I’m good like this.” He tried to drop the subject there, but she wouldn’t give up so easily.

“You don’t have to fear other people, Lenin. I know there are bad people out there, but there are people who care about you.” She said, with a caring tone.

**_‘Ask her to name one person that isn’t her and your mom. Then, again, she’s being paid to care and your mother doesn’t really love you. You are just a legal obligation for her.’_ **

_‘SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!’_ Lenin screamed in his mind. He feared to be starting to lose his very sanity. He closed his eyes tightly as he tried to push whoever was saying those things to the very depths of his mind. But he felt like it was a pointless struggle.

This didn’t go unnoticed by her, who was very concerned for the boy, “What’s wrong, Lenin? Please, talk to me. I can help you.”

**_‘No, she can’t. But, by all means, do tell her about everything. Let’s see her spew a bunch of unhelpful nonsense.’_ **

“It’s just…it doesn’t seem like I can escape being beaten every single day. If I need to keep alert all the time! Even when something good finally happens to me, something bad must remind me my life is horrible.” The boy finally let it out. It did feel good to confess it, but it didn’t help him by much.

She knew the boy had problems in school and from the looks of it, it’s getting worse, “Lenin, we can talk to the principal. Let’s tell him what’s going on. But you need to tell us who’s responsible for all of this.”

“No. he would kill me. I know he would.”

“He? Weren’t there multiple people before, Lenin?” She inquired further. All the times, she tried to convince the boy to tell her who was causing him so much pain, he always dodged it, by claiming it was ‘everyone’.

The boy wanted to bite his tongue off, curl up and die for making such mistake. But he then added, not really lying, “There are multiple people who insult me, when they think I’m not listening, but I do. And there are multiple people who beat me. It’s just that one is worse them the rest of them.”

“Lenin, nobody is going to try to kill you.” Serena tried to calm the boy down. He was starting to hyperventilate and getting more anxious. It wasn’t her intention to make him feel like it.

Lenin, however, gave a sarcastic laugh, “You wouldn’t say that if you knew him. I’m not his only victim, you know. I’ve seen him doing things. Everyone at school is terrified of him.”

“I don’t doubt he’s doing horrible things, Lenin. However, things certainly would not reach to such point. We can do everything to put a stop to this whole situation. I know it’s hard, but you need to tell us who’s responsible for hurting you.”

 **“If I tell you who it is, are going to shoot him dead, then? It’s the only way to stop him.”** Lenin asked, grimly. He immediately covered his mouth as he, once again creamed in his mind, ‘ _LEAVE ME ALONE!’_. His eyes were tearing up at that. He feared more and more that he was going crazy. That some unknown force was slowly taking over his body.

This took Serena by surprise. That was the first time he ever expressed a desire to hurt another person, “Lenin, I know you’re hurt, but you shouldn’t desire another person’s death. We cannot help you, if you don’t help us. I assure you it won’t need to come to that.”

 **“I need to help you? Isn’t your very job to help me instead?”** Once more, Lenin didn’t know why he said those things. He simply didn’t even recognize his own voice. This was the…monster inside of him talking. Why couldn’t Serena notice that he would never say such hurtful things.

“I know things are difficult for you right now, Lenin. I know this isn’t something you would like to hear, however you need to be strong. You cannot let such feelings consume you. It doesn’t mean you have to do it alone. We are here to help you, Lenin. We want you to be happy. You don’t deserve to suffer. We put a stop to whoever is causing you such distress, but you need to trust us to solve it.” She calmly explained it to him, oblivious to the silent pleas of the boy.

The albino lion was distressed at how she seemingly wasn’t noticing the change in his voice, like he was losing control of himself. If wanted to talk to her about it, but he feared he might be considered insane and make things even worse for him.

However, deep down, he knew she was right about him having to do a little more effort. But how can he help himself, when he doesn’t even want to get up from bed every morning.

“It wasn’t just him. Everyone took away any shred of happiness me and my mom had. Nothing brings me joy anymore. It’s a struggle to so much as do my own homework and even more so to study for exams in order to not fail. School is absolute hell to me. All I want to do, when I get home, is to sleep. However, I can’t even have that. I don’t remember the last time I had a good night of sleep. I keep…having nightmares.” He spoke softly.

She wrote something down on her clipboard after he spoke and then she addressed him, “Lethargy is a dangerous thing. I remember that you said you liked to play the piano and to craft objects. I remember that beautiful umbrella you’ve made last year. Have you tried to make another one or tried to join your school band?”

Lenin, however, had to counter it, “I don’t know how to do many things. I don’t want to create a bunch of umbrellas just because I’m bored. It would be a giant waste. As for the school band, I don’t want to humiliate myself in front of everyone. Besides, people mock the band a little.”

“You can learn new things. You can research how to craft other objects and ask a teacher to help you do it with safety. And, Lenin, in this world, unfortunately, there are people who’ll always try to drag you or other people down. You should never let it control you, otherwise you’ll never find happiness. For example, have I told you that my parents were adamantly against that I wanted to major in psychiatry?”

Lenin’s ears twitched at that and looked attentively at her, “Really? How did you convince them to let you study this?”

She smiled, a little bitterly, “I didn’t. They are against it up until this day. They even said that I should just become a ‘real doctor’, instead of a psychiatric, but this is my calling. This is what I wanted to do. I had to work a lot to raise myself through college years and now here I am. Life is full of hardships, that’s why you need to fight to obtain what brings you happiness.”

Lenin couldn’t hold his gaze on her for long as he stared once again at the floor. She then continued, “The path to happiness is a narrow and thorny one, but it’s worth it in the end. Do not give up, Lenin. You’re not alone and we can help you.”

The teen didn’t reply to that as he just fumbled with his hands as he heard her explanation. Maybe she was right. Maybe he should just tell her what Isaac has been doing and…

**_‘…And Isaac will set your house on fire while you sleep and block the doors, killing both you and your mother. All because of your own selfish desire.’_ **

“I…can’t…” he whimpered at the thought. He was scared. The grasp Isaac had on him was too strong for him to escape.

Lenin started to tremble at the thought of new scenarios Isaac could hurt or kill him. The mere thought made him start to tremble. His breathing started to get faster as his chest felt like it was being constricted. _‘What if Isaac was just outside of this door waiting for me to get out? I…I can’t stop him!’_

Noticing it, Serena quickly said, “Everything is okay, Lenin. Close your eyes, take deep breaths and try empty your mind. Nobody is going to hurt you. I won’t force you to do anything. But know the option is always here for you. Now, focus only on breathing.”

The boy did as he was told and tried to empty his mind while trying to control his breathing. It took him a few minutes before he was able to return to normal. “I’m sorry…” he muttered, feeling ashamed for the episode.

“Don’t be. I’ve told you, this is nothing to be embarrassed about.” She tried to comfort the boy. She could see things were bad, but whoever is hurting Lenin the most also seems to have a firm grasp over his heart and soul.

Unless the boy cooperates, there’s very little Serena could do to remedy it. The only option she could think of at the moment, would be to request a full investigation about the bullying issue in the school, but doing so, could also damage Lenin’s already fragile mental state. She was going to have to talk with Lenin’s mom about it next week.

There was also another thing that has been bothering her and it need addressing as well, “Have you been eating properly, Lenin? You’re looking quite thin.”

**_‘If she can see that, why bother asking?’_ **

“I’ve not been very hungry lately. This is not really a problem, you know. I’ve always been told to not eat when you’re full.” He quickly countered.

 ** _‘And you’re a waste of good food as well.’_** The voiced butted in once again, making his mood worsen even more.

“Lenin, you need to eat properly. I can see that your stress has been affecting your appetite and this isn’t healthy. I know this is hard for you, but you need to eat more.” She said and after a brief pause, she added, “You should see a nutritionist and ask them to evaluate you and see what kind of meals you should be having. A lack of nutrients will only harm your health, both mental and physical.”

The boy seemed to sulk a little. Yet another doctor he was going to have to visit. He wondered if he could just hide it from his mother, but knowing serena, she would contact her about it anyway and his mother would then get upset at Lenin for hiding it.

**_‘So much for patient confidentiality, right?’_ **

She could see the boy’s state deteriorating, so she swiftly tried to change subjects to another thing that picked her interest and might help the boy, “By the way, Lenin, you said that something good happened today? Would you like to share it with me?”

The boy hesitated for a little while, but he saw no harm in telling her about it. He told her about how he apparently got two new friends and how Edward and Jackson were going to help Lenin with studying and physical training, respectively.

“That’s some great news, Lenin! They seem to be kind people.” She said with a beaming smile.

“They are…” The teen, however, couldn’t really smile at that. At first, these were fantastic news for him, but the more he thought about it, was he preying on their kindness?

 ** _‘They are basically spending their time to save your ass and what do you do in return for them? Nothing! You’re a parasite through and through!’_** The voice mocked him.

He could not contest it, for he also thought the same thing. He felt dirty for it. What kind of friend was he in the end? He wanted to have friends, hang out and do everyone the other teens did, but he had to admit he was just a black hole. What would they even talk about? The albino lion felt like he had no real desires or wants. He would become a very boring friend really quickly and they would ditch him in the end.

However, he didn’t voice any of these fears to Serena. He wouldn’t even tell her the macabre thoughts and the content of the nightmares he was having. _‘There is nothing she could do to help me, in any case.’_

“That’s the gist of things. I don’t really have anything new to tell you.” He said, trying to end the session and just go home.

“There’s one more thing, we need to discuss, Lenin.” She said, already knowing what was the boy’s goal. “Have you been taking the medicine, like I prescribed?”

The boy flinched at that and Serena was able to spot it, “Lenin, it’s important that you take your anti-depressants like I’ve prescribed to you. They are important to help you. It’s important you take them every day, and at the same hour.”

“I’ve been taking them everyday, ever since that episode that I had last week, when I couldn’t bring myself to leave my home…But I don’t think the antidepressants are helping me at all!” Lenin tried to argue, “I feel the same as before, if not worst at times!” he said, fumbling with his hands while looking down.

Serena paused at that for a little while as she wrote something down, “It’s a slow progress, unfortunately. Let’s wait for one or two more weeks. If necessary, we’ll do a few more exams and we might have to increase the dosage to twice a day.”

**_‘More pills? Are they made of sugar? They should be enough to fix you, but it seems like she’s just giving you some snake oil for you to keep coming here.’_ **

“But…what if I’m not me anymore because of it?” Lenin ended up blurting, wanting the silence the voice.

**_‘Stupid! Shut up!’_ **

“What do you mean, Lenin?” She asked, concerned at him.

“I…feel like I’m not myself sometimes and this started after the I started taking them properly. What if they change me for good? What’ll happen when I stop taking them? Will I become someone different again? Will I revert back?” He confessed to her. This was part of the reason why he was very reluctant to take the medicine.

“Lenin, antidepressants won’t give you some new personality or change who you are.” She started explaining

 ** _‘In another words, they’re placebo and you’re just plain crazy. Good to know you don’t need to take them anymore.’_** the voice taunted him. However, the albino lion said nothing about it.

“To simplify the matter, there is a chemical imbalance in your brain and your medicine will help you return to normal. They’ll just help you focus more and reduce the bad thoughts you’ve been having. But they are not enough by themselves to cure you. That’s why I ask you to do your best to fight it. Try find things that bring you joy. You deserve to be happy.”

He was quiet for a little before asking, “For how long will I be like…this?”

“It’s hard to tell. It varies from person to person and you need to follow my instructions for you to be cured as fast as possible.” What she said was the truth, but she omitted the part where the struggle could take years for it to be finally over. She didn’t want to discourage the boy and she would be more upfront about it when he started to feel better.

She then added, “Lenin, you should also take some mild, natural sedative, like passion fruit. It should be able to relax more at night and give you a better sleep.”

“The nurse said the same thing yesterday.” Lenin replied, making the psychiatric smile.

“She’s right, you know. She told me you passed out yesterday. You should be careful, Lenin. If you aren’t feeling well enough to be at school, you should warn us.”

“But what if passionfruit doesn’t work?” he asked, apprehensively, not really wanting to hear the answer.

“There are medicines that can help you, if passion fruit isn’t enough. However, let’s first try this before worrying about it, alright? Needlessly worrying about things going worse, won’t make them better. Trust me and your nurse on this and try some natural medicine first.”

**_‘And then, after it doesn’t work, you’ll have to take much stronger medicine and you’ll find yourself addicted and incapable of sleeping on your own ever again. It’s better to not even start with this passion fruit bullcrap.’_ **

The teen was feeling a little sick at the mere thought of him becoming a drug addict on top of everything else that goes wrong with his life. However, he didn’t want to voice such worries either.

**_‘That’s right. Nobody can help you. Telling others won’t make their pity magically fix your problems. Deal with them yourself!’_ **

The boy looked at the clock and he saw that it was already a couple of minutes past the end of his session and he pointed it out to reminded Serena.

She also noticed it and she had another client after Lenin. She wanted to discuss things further, but she couldn’t keep the boy longer there, even if she wanted to.

“Very well, Lenin. Please, follow my advice and tell me how things are progressing next week. You’ll be better soon, I promise you that.” She said with just conviction and with a warm, gently smile, which made Lenin feel content for a brief moment until the familiar voice interrupted it.

**_‘She. Is. Paid. To. Care.’_ **

He silently sulked at the reminder, but he still thanked her for everything and she wished him a safe walk back home.

As he left the clinic, he noticed the sky was getting dark. He dreaded Isaac might be still around, lurking, waiting to hurt him. His white fur made him quite easy to spot even at night, so he had to rush in order to avoid trouble.

After he got past the school, there was no sign of Isaac anywhere. The trees were his favorite hiding place for ambushes, which made him wonder if he was safe for the rest of the day, however he couldn’t let his guard down just yet. That was, until he heard someone sobbing quite loudly by the bridge on the right of the school.

**_‘Ignore it! Go home!’_ **

_‘But someone might be in danger…’_

**_‘They’ve always ignored you. Why bother with them. Leave. NOW!’_ **

However, Lenin did not listen to the voice. He wasn’t sure of what he could even do. It probably wasn’t Isaac, since he wasn’t listening to his voice gloating or insulting. ‘ _Maybe someone twisted their ankle or something like it.’_ He had to consider.

However, his curiosity took the best of him and he went to see who was crying, by the pillar of the bridge. He saw the twins. One of them was crying while the other was trying to comfort his brother.

His mouth was agape as his body froze. It wasn’t Isaac, but they were still bullies. Lenin was scared, but his body wouldn’t move, no matter how much he screamed inside to do so. It was then, when the twins noticed Lenin’s presence there.

End of chapter 6


	7. A Bad Decision

Try as he might, Lenin could not move. His body betrayed him in his time of need and there was nothing he could do to escape this situation. He loathed himself for being concerned over someone crying only to find meet two of his bullies.

Antony glared at Lenin and simply said, “What are you doing here? This is none of your business!”

This did help to bring Lenin back to his senses. He wanted to leave. All they ever did was to bring him pain. However, seeing one of the twins crying like that did make him feel…bad for it.

**_‘Is your heart bleeding for a bully? Seriously?’_ **

The albino lion ignored the voice and asked, “What happened here?” However, as soon as he asked that, he recalled what had happened earlier that day.

Antony, however, didn’t want to tell Lenin anything, “I already told you to scram, or…”

**“Or what? Will you hit me? As if you wouldn’t already do it. You want to do to me what Isaac does to you two.”**

It happened again. The owner of the voice seems to enjoy to hijack Lenin’s body to say such mean things to others. The albino lion was starting to regret not talking to Serena about it. What if this started to get worst?

Antony was startled at first at Lenin’s sudden backbone display. He, however, wanted the albino to be gone and tried to scare him away by growling and clenching his fists, but Leandro stopped him, “Don’t. Just leave him be.” Then he looked at Lenin and just said, “Go home, Lenin. This has nothing to do with you.”

This Lenin regain his senses. Against his better judgement, he didn’t run away back home, “Did he do something else to you guys? I recall you were just fine after he…beat you two.”

The albino lion wasn’t exactly sure on how to proceed in this situation. On one hand, he never liked to see other people being bullied by Isaac, on the other hand, they participated in Isaac’s humiliations and beatings, be it directly or not.

Antony was going to yell at Lenin again, until he realized something, “How did you know that? You didn’t pass by us this morning.” He finished with his eyes narrowing.

Lenin wasn’t aware it was supposed to be a secret, but someone was bound to have seen that, so he used that as an excuse, “Other students were talking about it. They said they saw Isaac punch and kicking you two, so they ran as fast as possible to escape his ire.”

This didn’t sit well with Antony. Not because he doubted Lenin, but because they were going to be the talk of the school for some time. People did like to gossip around until something new happened.

“Isaac is going to flip, if he thinks it were us who told other people.” Leandro said, worriedly, drying his tears with the back of his hands, soaking his fur with it.

Lenin then tried to defuse the situation a little, while also telling them how he felt about it, “He won’t hear from me. I don’t have fun bullying or seeing others being bullied, you see.”

Antony didn’t like the jab, “Do you think we enjoy doing what he tells us to do?”

Lenin’s eyebrows creased, “Really? Then why not say ‘no’, like any half decent person would do?”

This time, it was Leandro who answered him, “It’s because he would beat us if we didn’t. He even stole the lunches we made. We haven’t eaten anything since breakfast.”

“Leandro!” Antony quickly chastised his brother for spilling their biggest secret. Not even Isaac knew they cooked. They had to pretend it was their mother who made their food when they brought their lunches to school.

 _‘This explains why the three of them weren’t at the cafeteria earlier…’_ Lenin thought. However, Antony’s reaction puzzled him a little.

Antony crossed his arms and told Lenin in defiance, “Fine, you can mock us now. Get if off your system.”

“Huh?” Lenin blurted, not understanding where he was getting at.

This reaction only frustrated Antony even more, “Don’t ‘huh’ me! Go ahead and mock us for cooking.”

The albino lion blinked a couple of times, still not understanding what was so important about it, “You cook…and that’s bad because…” he said, making a gesture with his hand to goad the twins to fill in the blank for him since he felt like their grievances were rather pointless without any actual reason.

Antony growled, but Leandro placed a hand over his brother’s shoulder to calm him down as he explained, “Don’t you know? Isaac considers cooking to be a girl only thing. If he knew we like to cook, then there would be no helping us form him.”

Now Lenin finally understood it. He didn’t know why discovering that Isaac held such backwards view on a basic survival skill still managed to surprise him. Lenin turned to Antony and said, “So, if I understood the situation correctly, you bully, steal and beat others to protect yourselves, while having to hide a good skill out of fear from an overly judgmental jerk.”

The twins were a little unsure on how to reply to that. On one hand, they didn’t like to have all their misdeeds rubbed on their faces, but Did Lenin just praise them for knowing how to cook?

“So…you don’t mind that we know how to cook?” Leandro asked, both curious and anxious.

“Of course not! Why would I? This whole conversation is stupid! You shouldn’t ashamed of that. You can do something useful, while I can’t even…” Lenin almost said he couldn’t even do basic things, like doing homework without a colossal amount of effort.

As for cooking itself, Lenin only knew how to do extraordinarily basic things, usually frozen food, heating something on a pan and making juices were the pinnacle of his culinary skills.

The twins were taken aback a little from the outburst. Outside from their family, nobody ever said anything good about their skills. Then again, having Isaac around made them never tell another soul about it. Not even Harry was aware of it.

“Thanks…” Leandro said, smiling a little bit. Then, after a few seconds, he finally said something that had been trapped in his chest for years now, “We’re also sorry for bullying you.”

 ** _‘Sorry? SORRY? Do they really think such empty words can actually do anything to erase what they’ve done?’_** The dark voice added.

Lenin partially agreed with it. Then, again, could he truly blame them for it? Isaac was much stronger than them and they’ve tasted probably enough of bullying to try to avoid being victims as much as possible.

**_‘So, this magically excuse them now?’_ **

_‘No…But at least it shows they aren’t evil because they want to.’_ Lenin replied back in his mind.

Antony then broke the silence by saying, “Yeah…We don’t really think anything bad about you and you don’t deserve any of the crap Isaac did to you. We know you won’t forgive us for all the shit we put you through, but, uh…” he then rubbed the back of his head, not knowing how he could finish the sentence without sounding overly sappy.

He, however, didn’t tell Lenin, or even his brother the other reason why he still obeys Isaac. It was because of Leandro. Isaac has a knack to find weakness and he likes to exploit it to his advantage. If Antony were alone, he wouldn’t accept any order from Isaac, even if it meant to be bullied. However, everytime Isaac lashed out on them, he was particularly cruel to Leandro and Antony couldn’t just let it happen.

To make matters worse, his brother wasn’t so resilient. He loved his brother and Leandro loved him back. They supported each other through thick and thin. In order to protect his brother, he accepted doing so many vile things Isaac and he would probably still have to do them…He hated that things became like this.

He looked to his brother, who, somehow, knew what he wanted to tell Lenin and was able to translate his feelings properly, “What Antony is trying to say is that what we did to you was inexcusable. But I think that we still can do something for you.”

“We can try distract him away from you whenever we can.” After a brief pause, he continued, “And, uh, would you like to try our food?”

This surprised both Lenin and Antony, who just stared at Leandro, who had to clarify, “The only one that has ever shared what we made was Harry, but we still had to give him the same lie as we gave Isaac. We like to see people enjoying what we make and, maybe, one day, we can open our own restaurant.”

Antony wasn’t really sure if his brother should have told Lenin about their dream, but he did spoke the truth when he mentioned they were gleeful when others savored their food. Even Isaac begrudgingly said it wasn’t “half bad”, while eating everything, after he stole their food.

After giving it a thought, Antony reiterated what his brother offered Lenin and added, “We know this doesn’t erase what we did to you, but how about consider this a truce of sorts.”

**_‘I bet they want to poison you.’_ **

_‘No…They wouldn’t go this far just for that. If they wanted to hurt me. There are easier ways…’ the_ albino replied back in his mind. “Sure…” The albino lion replied, still a little hesitant. But, in any case, their promise to stealthily help him out would be more than welcome. And if turned out they were lying, it really wouldn’t change anything in his life. He didn’t have anything to actually lose by taking their offer.

“It’s a deal, then.” Leandro said with a grin. This did help him alleviate some of the guilt he felt for tormenting Lenin under Isaac’s orders. He always had hope that one day Isaac will just move out of town and leave them alone. However, Antony always said it was wishful thinking and it would never happen.

Antony then noticed it was getting quite dark and he said, “It’s better for us to get home before we are scolded. We’ll see what we can do to help you, Lenin. This weekend we can make a dish and deliver it to your house. You can tell us what you think of it afterwards.”

Lenin was a little apprehensive at first for them even knowing where his house was until he was reminded, **_‘Everyone know where your house is, you moron. It sticks out like a sore thumb.’_**

Lenin just shifted his feet a little, feeling uncomfortable. “Alright, I suppose. I…have to go now…” He almost said ‘see you tomorrow’, but he managed to not do so. They weren’t friends. Not even close to it. However, this entire conversation felt surreal for him, especially because they claimed to not want to bully him anymore.

‘Better late than never, I suppose…’ Lenin thought as he turned and awkwardly walked fast back to his home, not really wanting to look back, in case they were mocking him behind his back. He would rather not know and trust their words.

After Lenin left them, the twins also went back to their own home. Nighttime at Samiga was always eerie quiet, save for the buzz of insects.

“He doesn’t deserve any of this crap.” Leandro said softly to his brother as they walked.

“None of us do. But this was a risky move, you know. What if Isaac finds out about this?” Antony replied eying his brother and feeling relieved that he wasn’t limping anymore from the beating. “Remember that I’ll always try to put us before him, you know.” He finished, sternly to make his point across.

“I know…it’s just that this is unfair. I wanted to be more open about our hobbies and be able to talk to others about our dream.” Leandro replied.

Antony had to agree with his brother on that part. But then Leandro added, “I’m sorry…”

“For what?” Antony replied, not understand why he would say this out of blue.

“You’re always taking care of me. I know you wanted to defy Isaac, but doesn’t do it because of me.” Leandro explained.

He was much smarter than Antony gives him credit for. “Don’t be. You’ve saved me more times than I can remember.”

Leandro had always helped his brother get away from trouble at home and school. For example, back when they were kids, Antony broke a clock at home when playing with a ball indoors, which was against their parents’ rule. Leandro managed to put it back together before their parents even discovered it while Antony panicked, not wanting to be grounded for it. Thankfully Leandro did a good job and their parents never found out. They were always able to lean on each other and offered support to each other.

Leandro simply smiled at his brother and said, “I love you, bro.”

Antony was a little embarrassed, but he smiled sheepishly “I love you too.”

___________________

When Lenin got back home, he was feeling rather tired. A lot happened to him in a single day and he was still trying to digest it all. All he wanted was to have dinner, do his homework and fall asleep.

When he got back home, Lenin’s mother startled him by nearly shouting, “Where were you? Your appointment ended a long time ago and when I phoned the clinic, they said you weren’t there anymore.”

Lenin was a little astonished at this sudden outburst. ‘ _Mom…was worried?’_

**_‘Don’t fool yourself. She just wanted to make sure if she had to call the cops or not, just so she wouldn’t get in trouble.’_ **

That comment made him return to his senses, “Sorry, mom…I got sidetracked to…avoid the other people form school.” He lied. He knew his mother would get upset if he told her he was having an amicable talk with his bullies.

His mother was aware Lenin was ashamed to go the psychiatric. She wished he would have called her or something. She got him a phone, a couple of years ago, he said he had lost it. At first, she was mad at him for being careless, but now she thought it was probably stolen given how he was adamant in asking her to cancel his phone line “just in case”.

Last Christmas she intended to give him another one, but he refused saying he had nobody to call and that he wouldn’t take it outside of home to prevent another incident.

And she never apologized to him for calling him careless as well.

The lioness calmed herself down and just told him, “I see…then go wash your hands. Dinner is ready.”

He nodded as he went upstairs to place his backpack in his room and do as he was told. When he returned, they ate in silence as usual. Afterwards, he helped her to clean everything and then he excused himself to do his homework.

At his room, he picked the books and papers he needed and did his best to complete it. At first, he was certain he probably got many answers wrong. He groaned in frustration and forced himself to redo everything from scratch. His grades depended on his learning the subjects, or at least to memorize them long enough until the exams. He did his best to push himself to keep going, even after feeling burned out after a couple of hours.

Once he was finally satisfied with his homework, he felt exhausted and could barely think anymore. At least he was so focused on the homework that the voice seemed to leave him alone for the time being

He got ready to go to bed and, to his own surprise, he managed to quickly fall asleep.

___________________

When Lenin was six years old, he was in his room staring at mirror as he used a brush around his head. He was wearing just a pair of shorts and the brush was coated with red ink.

However, he nearly jumped when his mother reopened the door of his room and saw his body dripping with a mixture of yellow and brown paint with a few child-safe paint bowls near him.

“Lenin! What are you doing? What is all this?” She asked, not realizing at first why would her son create such a mess.

“I’m giving myself color! If I’m normal, daddy will come back!” the young boy said, hoping his mother would understand it. ‘ _Maybe, she can paint me where I can’t reach’_ , the boy added in his mind.

However, this didn’t have the effect the albino lion desired. “Lenin! Stop! Just…stop!”

Lenin was scared. The expression his mommy was having sent chills down his spine. He remembered seeing his parents argue before. His father complained every single day about how everyone mocked and ridiculed him at work and how people even accused him of not being Lenin’s real father.

The boy, at the time, didn’t understand what that meant. How could he not be his father? Daddy was daddy, after all. However, the fights become worse and worse until, one day, a few days prior, after Lenin got back from school, he saw his mother crying by the kitchen table.

He was scared. He had never seen his mommy like this before. He had approached her and asked her what was wrong, but she just told him in a tone mixed with anger and bitterness, “Your father left us. All because you were born with the wrong color!”

Lenin was already mocked for being completely white. Kids were mean and other adults just avoided him. However, that was the first time his mother actually told such thing to him. The young boy did not know how to process this. He wondered if his mother hated him if she was going to leave him too. He wanted his father back. He didn’t want to be alone.

He started to sob right there. “P-p-lea-se, don’t leave me, m-mommy!” he managed to say.

His mother felt extremely guilty for lashing out on him. Things were harsh for her. She had been accused of cheating her husband, or being filthy for giving birth to an albino, among other vile words. Her husband claimed he couldn’t endure having the town harassing him so much. Because of that he decided to just leave the town and start over somewhere else.

They had filed for divorce earlier that day and he, at least, agreed to leave them the house and pay alimony for Lenin. But he didn’t want to be around anymore. He had abandoned his family, hurting his wife. And now she was hurting her son.

“I…I’m not leaving you, Lenin.” She managed to say. The boy simply continued to cry as he ran towards his mother and hugged her tightly. She had sworn to herself to not hurt her son like this ever again.

Sadly, this was a promise she could not keep.

When she saw Lenin’s body dripping with paint and the reason why he did it, she couldn’t stop herself from shouting, “YOUR FATHER DOES NOT LOVE YOU! UNDERSTAND THIS, ALREADY!”

She was still furious at her husband for lying when he made the marriage vows. She was angry at Lenin for wanting him back. And she loathed herself for also wanting him back. However, this was something that simply wasn’t going to happen.

The boy couldn’t process what she had just said. She had to be mistaken. His father only left because of people’s comments about Lenin’s fur. His idea had to work. His father still loved him.

That was what Lenin repeatedly told himself.

However, without thinking, his mother just grabbed Lenin’s arm tightly as she dragged him to the bathroom, “We are going to clean you and after this, you’ll clean this mess you’ve made. Am I clear?”

Lenin, however, tried to fight back, “Please, mommy! You’re hurting me. Let go!”

“Stop making a scene! Look at what you did! Do you think you can actually disguise yourself?” She harshly scolded him.

Lenin was kicking and screaming all the way to the bathroom as his mother washed away the paint from his body and then forced him to clean the ink stains on the floor.

Lenin cried himself to sleep that night. After that, he and his mother never hugged again.

___________________

Lenin’s body stirred softly as he woke up. ‘ _Another stupid nightmare…_ ’ he thought. He hated having to relive his past in his sleep. But his memories seemed to have a will of its own and would never allow him to forget.

When Lenin turned to look at the clock, he noticed that it was just a few minutes away from the alarm. He didn’t recall the last time he was able to sleep a full night. He still felt a little sick in the stomach, but compared to other days, he was feeling…less awful.

He went decided to get ready for school and once he was done, he got downstairs and he finally noticed, his mother was still in her room. The memories he relived were still fresh in his head.

His mother had been right about his father. He didn’t care about them. No visits. No letters or e-mails. No phone calls. Nothing. He always paid child support diligently, but that was about it.

**_‘Your mother probably didn’t ditch you as well, because of some law that stopped her from doing so.’_ **

Lenin clenched his fists. He hated those intrusive thoughts. He was seriously considering talking to Serena about them, but he feared being labeled crazy because of it. He didn’t need this extra baggage to deal with.

 _‘Why can’t I just be normal?’_ he thought as he prepared just a toast with glass of milk for his breakfast.

As the toasts were ready, he then remembered to take his medicine. He opened the drawer and picked the box of anti-depressants. He stared at it for a few minutes. He remembered what Serena mentioned to him. About how it was fixing him. But wasn’t this strange voice a result of it? After he started taking them regularly?

And there was the fear that he would simply be a slave to this medicine for the rest of his life. The teen was already feeling a little better, compared with other days and he thought it was probably the result of him actually having people to talk to.

Despite of what the dark voice says, Lenin wants to believe that he had befriended Edward and Jackson. And now Antony and Leandro won’t actually hurt him anymore.

**_‘But they are still Isaac’s lackeys. What do you think it’ll happen if Isaac forces them to choose between hurting you and having Isaac hurt them? They’ll throw you under the bus in a heartbeat!’_ **

He couldn’t really argue against that. All he could do was to hope things wouldn’t come to that.

He stared at the box for a little while and he decided to just put it back inside the drawer. He wanted to try to not rely on this medicine anymore. And if really needed, he could start taking the antidepressants again.

He picked his food and took it to the kitchen table. Instinctively, his body flinched as he heard his mother come downstairs. She still wanted to talk to Lenin, so she greeted him.

“Good morning, Lenin.”

“Good morning, mom.”

But that was about it. The albino lion continued to eat his food as she started to prepare her own breakfast. Neither of them said another word to each other. It felt suffocating how they basically acted like strangers to each other.

Everyday she tried to muster the courage to apologize to her son. To have a heartfelt conversation with him. To assure him that she did love him. But the words wouldn’t come out. She wondered when exactly she lost the capability to communicate with him.

 _‘How can I even tell him I love him, after how I treated him during all these years?’_ She thought. There were even days when she got up earlier to avoid confrontation when her son was in the middle of a crisis.

Serena was helping her to reconnect with him, but it was so difficult. She was convinced her son hated her. She never forgave herself, so she assumed she didn’t deserve forgiveness from him either.

They had yet another silent and awkward breakfast and once Lenin was finished, he cleaned his plate and glass and told her he was leaving to school. However, before he reached the door, she interrupted him.

“Lenin, did you remember to take your medicine?” She asked him, reminding herself to not repeat the incident from the previous day.

Lenin turned to her and then lied, “Yes, mom, I have.”

End of chapter 7


	8. Erosion

As Lenin walked to school, he felt a little different. He was anxious, but he was still looking forward talking to Edward and Jackson. He hoped this to be a sign that he was feeling better already.

Isaac was still a problem, but he might become more manageable now with the twins’ help.

 ** _‘You’re placing too much hope on people who had bullied you before.’_** The voice reminded, ruining his mood. The teen wondered if it was just wishful thinking that things would get better.

However, if his life would never improve in any way, then what would be the point of living. This thought terrified Lenin as he tried to focus on his surroundings to stop thinking about that.

When he finally got near school, he found no sign of Jackson, Edward, Antony, Leandro, Harry or even Isaac. He proceeded with caution as he approached the same wall he had climbed with Edward on the previous day. He noticed the rock was still there and he decided to climb the wall again just in case Isaac was there waiting for him by the trees yet again.

Lenin saw a few other students slowly arriving at the school. To prevent anyone from snitching on him to Isaac he just leaned his back against the wall and waited until there was nobody around. This was a risky move in case Isaac had not yet arrived, but being seen would probably result in the same scenario of him getting beaten up anyway.

Once the flow of arriving students stopped, Lenin quickly climbed on the rock and jumped over the wall. His fall wasn’t exactly gracious, but he at least didn’t get hurt doing so.

After checking if nobody else happened to be at the back of the school, he walked around and entered school as if everything was normal. After he go inside, he felt a little relived, but then he remembered Edward. He hoped his friend wouldn’t bump into Isaac. If Lenin had a phone, he would call him to jump over the wall again, however, even if Lenin did have a phone, he didn’t know Edward’s number.

**_‘Maybe he didn’t even bother telling you his number because he was faking it, like I told you.’_ **

_‘Shut it!_ ’ Lenin replied back in his mind.

The albino lion walked through the corridors wondering if Edward was at the library. He had to go check it and see if he was okay. He didn’t want the geeky lion to become Isaac’s new victim.

As he walked, his attention turned to the bulletin board. There was a big pamphlet saying “Join the school band! Auditions start next Monday!”

He stared at it for a little while. The pamphlet was decorated with many instruments and it seemed to have been made with basic Wordart skills given how cluttered it was.

However, Lenin was…interested in it. He loved to play piano and he might be able to…

**_‘Fail miserably? How long has it been since you’ve played piano, you idiot? Besides, do you have the desire to humiliate yourself in front of everyone?’_ **

Lenin’s mood became sour as he listed to these words. He didn’t need to bring more attention to himself. He had to lay low, like his mother always tells him to. The more he tried to stand out, the more people would bully him…

But he wanted to part of the band. As Serena had told him, he had to make an effort to go after the things he enjoyed. He tightened his grip around his backpack’s strips as he mulled about it.

He came to the conclusion people would bully him regardless of what he did or didn’t do. The dark voice in his mind kept screaming to make him quit this idea, but he ignored it.

He marched towards the Music room and found the teacher there. He had a somewhat unkept brown mane and he always wore spectacles. The Music teacher was checking the instruments when he noticed Lenin entering the room.

“Good morning, Lenin! Is there something I can help you with? I think that your class with me is in the second period.” He said.

“Good morning, sir. It’s just that…I wanted to ask you something.” The teenager started.

“Hmm” the music teacher stopped what he was doing to pay attention to what Lenin had to say. It was rare for the boy to be upfront about anything. He let the boy be comfortable enough to continue, so he didn’t pressure him.

“You see, I just saw the bulletin board and I thought…if I can join the band…” he managed to say as his eyes darted around the classroom to avoid meeting his teacher’s eyes. The Music teacher has always been nice to him, but he feared to be told he wasn’t good enough to even try.

However, his fears were unfounded, “That’s great, Lenin! Do you intend to play the piano for the band?”

The albino lion felt a little relieved at not being shot down. “Yeah…But I don’t think, I’ll be good enough to…”

“It doesn’t matter, Lenin. You should try and do your very best. That’s what matters in the end.” The teacher interrupted him.

“But…there should be a lot of people here better than me…” the boy said, starting to regret coming there. He wondered why he would even cogitate that he could actually get into the band.

**_‘Yes. What’s the point of even trying if you know you’ll be placed in dead last anyway.’_ **

“Don’t be foolish, boy! Did you know there are many talented musicians that heavily outclass me? Does it mean I should stop trying to improve myself because I don’t think I would never be as good as them?” he started sternly, but his expression mellowed as he approached the boy, “Worrying about what you can’t do doesn’t help anyone. You should always try do your very best. Yes, sometimes you can’t accomplish what you initially wanted. But you can learn, improve and do even better next time.”

Lenin clenched his fists as he stared at his own feet. The teacher placed a hand over the boy’s shoulder and reassured him, “Do not let your fears consume you, Lenin. I know you enjoy playing music. Come for the audition and play to your hearts content. You may surprise yourself. Do not deny yourself of something you like doing because of a petty fear.”

“But what if others mock me for failing? Or worse, if I get into the band and fail during the recital?” Lenin finally admitted to it.

“I’ll not allow poor sportsmanship, so to speak, here. Obtaining first place at something does not give anyone the right to ridicule those who come in last. Besides, those who don’t even have the courage to try have no business in saying anything negative about you. All I ask of you, Lenin, is for you to do your very best.” The teacher countered as he crossed his arms with a serious expression.

Lenin stood there quietly for a couple of minutes. He was unsure if he should really make himself a fool in front of the whole school and several parents. Surely his mother wouldn’t even bother showing up, so he wouldn’t embarrass himself in front of her.

Yet, he wanted it. He wanted to play in the band. managed to gather courage to look at his teacher and said, “I…w-want to audition for the band.”

The teacher smiled warmly at him and said, “This is great to hear, Lenin boy. I look forward to seeing you play.”

Lenin smiled back at him and replied, “Thanks a lot, sir.”

“You’re welcome, Lenin boy. Classes are going to start in twenty minutes. You should be heading to your class now.” The music teacher told him, happy that his student found courage to do something he enjoyed.

They said their byes and Lenin thanked him once more before leaving the classroom. Classes didn’t even start and he was feeling exhausted already and he still had to find Edward.

Before going to the class, Lenin walked straight to the library to check if his friend was there, but, to his surprise, Edward was walking towards him.

“Good morning, Lenin! How are you?” Edward greeted, cheerful.

“Good morning, Edward. I’m fine. You?” he replied back, a little awkward, still not used to being treated nicely by others.

“Same. I was checking some more books, but the librarian said I can’t take more until I return those I already picked.” Edward explained.

“I see…” Lenin started saying, but then he stopped himself. Something felt quite strange to him, “Hey, uh, did you jump over the wall like we did yesterday?” he had to ask. Edward clearly wasn’t hurt, upset or anything like that.

The lion with glasses blinked a couple of times before answering, “No…I just came here normally. I arrived about 30 minutes ago”

“Wasn’t Isaac waiting by the trees or at the hallways?” Lenin inquired further, a few alarms sounding in his head, for reasons he couldn’t put his finger on.

“No, he wasn’t. Does he do that everyday?” Edward getting why Lenin was so worried. He thought that the previous day incident wasn’t a recurring thing.

“Most of time, yes. But I’m usually the only one he likes to pick on. I usually wait for him to get distracted by something to run past him.” He explained.

**_‘You mean, letting another be bullied, so you can save yourself.’_ **

This gave Lenin a sour taste in his mouth and made him feel sick. It didn’t matter how many times Lenin tried to ignore it, or counter it. This voice wouldn’t let go of him or leave him alone.

“Lenin, are you alright? Do you need to see the nurse?” Edward asked concerned. He saw the sudden change in the expression of his friend. The albino lion seemed to be worried about something. _‘Is it because we narrowly avoided Isaac?’_ Edward wondered.

“I’m…fine…Thanks Edward.” Lenin managed to say, getting a hold of himself. He had to focus on something else. Entertaining the dark voice only made him feel worse everytime.

The geeky lion frowned “No, you’re not.” But then he expression mellowed as he continued, worried Lenin might faint again, “Come, I’ll help you go to the nurse.”

 **“I’m not a child, you know!”** The voice replied back, scaring both Lenin and Edward. The albino lion was now terrified. It’s almost like it’s gaining a lot of power of him and there’s nothing he can do to stop it.

_‘I must talk to Serena about this. Maybe that patient secrecy thing will stop her from telling others about it. I don’t want people to think I’m crazy! I’m not!’_

“I’m sorry, Edward. I’m really sorry…” Lenin apologized over and over to him. He knew Edward meant well, but he didn’t want to go to the nurse for every little thing. He wanted to be normal!

Edward was a little dazed for his friend sudden outburst, wondering if that somehow offended him. But he knew that going to the nurse was probably the best idea, yet he couldn’t exactly drag Lenin there either.

“Lenin, calm down, please! It’s okay” Edward quickly tried to defuse the situation. He had to wonder if Lenin was starting to have a panic attack. The albino lion was trembling a lot, breathing quite hard and, from the looks of, it having cold sweat.

Lenin’s heart was pounding fiercely as he tried to regain his senses. He didn’t want to lose this friendship. _‘Why did the voice made me act like a jerk? Does it want to see me suffer so much?’_

It took him a few good minutes to come back to his senses. He was at least glad this episode wasn’t a strong one. Lenin felt like he was slipping. _‘Was this because I didn’t take my medicine? No…it can’t be…this has happened when I took them as well.’_ He tried to reason with himself.

When Lenin felt good enough, he managed to say, “I’m alright now…I’m so-”

“Don’t be sorry!” Edward quickly interrupted him. “Look, I’m aware I can’t claim that I know how you feel. But I can tell you are feeling some pain right now. You should go to the nurse and have you checked.”

Edward was now quite informed that Lenin hated that people mocked his illness. He ended up witnessing some people talking about how Lenin was “totally faking it to skip school” and it disgusted the new student. If anyone had bothered to actually know the albino lion, hey would see how much he’s hurt. All they do is to twist the knife on his wounds because they apparently have a need to talk ill things about other people all the time.

Lenin, however, didn’t want to go to the nurse a second time in a single week. What if he was sent home for the rest of the week? He couldn’t risk it. The comments people would make of him would be unbearable after he returned, not to mention what his mother would say to him.

Yet, Lenin felt…a little happy. He was glad someone actually cared about him, which made him feel even more guilty for letting the voice constantly say mean things to him.

He managed to find a middle ground Edward would agree, “Thanks a lot, Edward. You don’t know how much this…” he stopped himself. He didn’t want to sound overly saccharine, or needy for the matter. “Look, how about this? If I have any other episode like this, I promise you I’ll go to the nurse straight away. Deal?”

Edward smiled a bit at seeing Lenin warming up to him, but he wouldn’t his friend off the hook yet. He would make sure the albino lion fulfilled his side of the bargain. After all, he didn’t want Lenin to end up hurting himself by falling again. “Deal!”

Then, both boys realized they only had three minutes to arrive at their classrooms before the class started. Thankfully, both had Math class, so they were able to go together and managed to get to the classroom only a few seconds before the bell rang.

Despite of it, the rest of the day went by fairly uneventful. Until lunch, that is.

As Lenin and Edward were eating and chatting, they heard a familiar voice taunting them, “Well, well, look what we have here.”

Isaac said as he approached their table. He had a smirk on his face as he eyed Edward and Lenin. The albino lion remembered how Isaac initially thought the two were enemies, but now the secret was out the bag. Lenin’s body froze in place and didn’t even react when Isaac grabbed a few fries out of Lenin’s plate and ate them.

“Hey!” Edward quickly protested. Isaac stared at the geeky lion, narrowing his eyes. Lenin knew something horrible would happen, if he didn’t do anything.

“Edward, please! It’s alright.” He said, trying to de-escalate the situation.

The lion with glasses, however wasn’t happy with it at all. He wanted to tell Isaac what was in his mind, but seeing his friend’s expression, he decided to not do so, to avoid having Isaac hurt him.

“See, nerd, this is how you should behave. Next time, you better not raise your voice to me, or else…” Isaac said, with a malicious smile.

However, this only made Edward angrier and the bully didn’t like to see the new student so defiant of him. “But I guess I can give you a taste of it now, if you want it so much!”

Lenin’s mind was now screaming. Why couldn’t Edward just look down, accept the insult and move on?

‘ ** _Because he’s not a coward like you!’_** the voice jabbed him.

Lenin tried to argue that it doesn’t matter to be brave, if you’re going to get beaten up anyway. He didn’t know what to say. Would he risk bringing forth Isaac’s wrath to protect Edward?

Lenin opened his mouth to protest, but no sound came and, as Isaac clenched his fist, another familiar voice said, “Hey, Isaac, you better not do this here. The cafeteria attendant might see it and tell on you. Let me do it instead. I’ll make sure these two dweebs learn the rules around here for you.”

It was the chubby lion, Harry who said it. While Lenin wasn’t very surprised at him showing up, he was more curious as to why Edward appeared to look distressed at Harry’s sight.

Isaac eyed Harry for a few seconds before saying, “I guess you’re right, fat ass.” Then he approached Harry and growled for only him to listen, “Besides, you own me one for not showing up yesterday, when I needed you to help me teach the two morons to not snitch on me.”

This made Harry’s heart skip a beat, but he managed to not show it. “You don’t have to worry about a thing. I’ll beat them nicely for you.”

Isaac grinned as he remembered the other lion, “Remember to not hit their faces.” Then he left the cafeteria with a grin on his face. The warning was to protect Isaac from any implication. Wounds on the face are too easy to spot and they would be hard to cover even under his threats.

After Isaac was gone, Harry gave a loud sigh, “I almost had a heart attack there. You two should probably pretend I hurt you guys. For both our sakes.”

Edward’s expression went from shock and disbelief to a somewhat annoyed and relieved one, “Is he threatening you to bully others? Won’t he come back for lunch?” He inquired.

Harry shrugged as he explained, “I don’t know the details. All he said was that he got lunch from someone else. I hope it wasn’t from Antony and Leandro again.”

“ **So, you hope it was from some innocent kid?”** The voice explained in Lenin’s stead. This time he didn’t object to the content of the phrase, but he didn’t want Harry to bully him in the end as well.

“That’s not what I meant!” Harry tried to defend himself. “It’s hell to work for that guy! I don’t want to any of the shit he forces me to do.”

“You still don’t say no.” Lenin replied, feeling like it was a déjà vu from the previous day. “Why help us now?”

“Wait, wait. You work for Isaac, Harry?” Edward rapidly asked.

Harry hesitated for a little while, while Lenin was confused by it, “Do you two…know each other?”

It was Edward’s turn to be surprised by it, “I told you about him, don’t you remember?”

Lenin blinked a couple of times as he remembered when Edward had pointed at Harry’s direction. He had assumed it was the other teen he was referring to. The albino lion then replied to Edward’s statement, “Yes…But I thought you were talking about the other guy he was talking to. Harry bullies others at Isaac’s command. Why did you even help us, anyway?”

Harry frowned at the implication he liked doing all those bad things, “I already told you I don’t do this crap because I want to! You know better than anyone else how scary he is! Besides, Edward is my friend. I couldn’t just let this happen.”

“But you do bully people…” Edward said softly, saddened by this discovery. It turned out he and Harry lived near each other and they ended up getting along really well. It felt like a stab on his heart to find that out.

However, he could still see Harry’s upset expression at being told to his face he was a bully. The geeky lion remembered how Harry was terrified of his love for comics being found out by Isaac. Besides, he just risked his neck for him. ‘ _The true culprit here is Isaac! He’s the one making everyone miserable. Someone has to stand up against him!’_ Edward thought.

Edward’s words felt like a stab on Harry, but he couldn’t exactly deny them. He was overjoyed at having someone to talk about comics with. That teen who sold comics was interested mostly in selling than discussing them. He couldn’t exactly blame Edward for not wanting to be his friend.

Also, as the chubby lion looked at Lenin, he saw the albino staring at him fiercely. It was rather unsettling seeing him like that. The albino was usually meek and always avoided looking directly at others. Harry correctly assumed this anger originated from the fact that he had never attempted to help Lenin, like he just did for Edward.

Truth to be told, he had nothing against the albino lion, but he was still too scared of Isaac to actually do something about it. Still, he risked saving Edward, while he wouldn’t bulge to save a stranger. Was friendship truly a selfish thing? He had a vague memory of reading something like this before.

Harry decided it would be for the better to leave the two alone, however Edward stopped him, “Wait, Harry!” he then turned to Edward, who continued, “Look, I know I’m still new around here, but I’ve seen enough of this Isaac to know he’s rotten and he brings the worst on people.”

After a brief paused, the geeky lion continued, “I want you to promise me you won’t bully others anymore. I know, you’re scared, but it’s still not an excuse. I can tell you’re a good person, but you need to be brave. We can think of something.”

Harry, however, had to object, “Edward, did you even see what he did to Antony and Leandro?”

“Yes, I did! But, can’t you even try?

“I don’t do anything when he’s not looking. I already took a huge risk to bail you out. Do you want me to get beaten up?” Harry said.

 ** _‘I bet that by you, he meant just Edward.’_** The voice pointed out as Lenin watched their exchange, with his anger flaring up. He could not understand why Edward was going so far for a bully when…

 ** _‘…When you literally fraternized with Antony and Leandro yesterday?’_** The voice reminded him, giving him shame for doubting Edward.

“Do you want others to get beaten up?” Edward countered. “We can try stop him! Isaac isn’t some invincible monster. We can think of a way to put an end to this, since everyone is too scared of telling on him to the principal.”

 ** _‘Wow! He’s only saying all this crap because he hadn’t been beaten into submission yet. Let him try and see for himself how painful it is. He’ll find out he’s far too naïve and nothing he comes up with will work. Maybe he’ll go back to his hometown after a single beating._** ’ The voice ranted in Lenin’s mind, utterly destroying any appetite he had left and leaving him with a stomachache.

Harry opened his mouth to answer, but he was interrupted, by another familiar voice, “Leave them alone!”

It was Jackson. He had been busy with talking to the P.E. teacher about asking him for the keys to the gym to train after school was over. When he saw Harry next to Edward and Lenin, he imagined that he was bullying the two. It wasn’t a secret to the other students who Isaac’s goons were. The jock was quite angry at himself for being so late for letting this to happen.

“He’s not doing anything! Leave us!” Edward said with a somewhat open hostility. At first, Lenin was confused by it, but then he remembered that the geeky lion was very wary of popular kids in general.

The albino lion was happy to see Jackson trying to help out, but since Harry really wasn’t bullying them, he had to intervene, “It’s okay, Jackson. He didn’t do anything bad to us. He even made us dodge a bullet a few moments ago.”

The athlete eyed suspiciously at Harry, who was getting nervous at this point. “Alright…I’m sorry, then. But you better not get involved with Isaac anymore! If I catch you ever again bullying someone else, we’ll have trouble, undertood?” Jackson warned him. The jock was adamant in ending this bullying issue at the school. All he had to do was to catch Isaac, or his lackeys, red handed.

“Who do you think you are?” Edward protested. The geeky lion was livid at the thought that the jock threatening his friend. Couldn’t he see that Harry was also a victim of Isaac’s?

“You’re just trying to improve your popularity by playing hero!” Edward bitterly said.

Jackson was frankly shocked at this accusation. All he did was to try to help. However, Lenin wasn’t going to let Edward’s comment slide, “Hey! Jackson wasn’t wrong in suspecting Harry, you know. Do you know how many times harry helped Isaac around? How many times he bullied me?” Lenin said that last part pointing at Harry, before continuing, “I get it that Isaac is forcing his hand, like he’s doing with Leandro and Antony. I also think that if Isaac wasn’t around they wouldn’t do anything bad, but you can’t fault Jackson for trying to protect us from a known bully. Ask around, if you don’t believe me!”

Lenin’s chest was heaving as he ranted as he clenched his hands on the edge of the table as if to not fall from the chair, “And one last thing, don’t insult my friend! He’s a good person too!”

Everyone was taken aback by his outburst. Edward’s first instinct was to get angry at seeing Lenin siding with a popular kid, but it quickly faded away as his words rang true. ‘ _Wasn’t I just now trying to protect one of his bullies right in front of him? Of course, Lenin would side with this Jackson guy. I’m so stupid!’_ the geeky lion thought, crestfallen. He had made some good friends in this town and now things are getting out of hand. He wasn’t aware of Harry’s past before and he could tell he wasn’t an evil person.

But he had to put himself in Lenin’s shoes. Would he just forgive Harry? All he wanted was for his friends to get along. This was far more complicated than he expected things to be when he had moved to this town.

Harry then said, “I…have to go now, okay?”

Edward turned to Harry and then replied, “Sure. I see you later, harry. Be careful, alright?”

The chubby lion smiled weakly, thankful for the concern of his friend. He was glad that this friendship wasn’t completely lost, but he really didn’t want to stick around Jackson, who was still eyeing him, like he was going to do something bad at any moment. “Thanks, you be careful too.”

After Harry left, the three of them just stood there in awkward silence. Lenin wasn’t going to finish his plate anymore given how his appetite has been spoiled. He noticed Jackson was now staring at Edward, who was doing the same to him.

He didn’t want them to start fighting, so he said, “Jackson, thanks for helping me out, but everything is fine. Really. You should get your lunch before the break is over.”

They still had about one hour left, which was more than enough time. “If you say so…But if he bothers you again. Tell me, alright?”

Then, after getting a soft nod from the albino lion, the jock asked, “Can I sit with you guys?” Jackson asked.

Edward wanted to say ‘No’, but he bit his tongue. That was the first time he saw a popular guy showing genuine concern for an unpopular kid. He still didn’t trust the guy, but he wasn’t going to antagonize him any further. For the moment, that was. He decided to wait and see if he was just tricking Lenin or not.

After saying, “Yes” to him, Lenin remembered he forgot to pick a book for his chemistry class, which was going to be the very next period. He then said, “I need to go the library really quick and I’ll be back in a moment.”

He then excused himself and tried to dash to the library. He didn’t want to leave Jackson and Edward alone for long to prevent them from arguing with each other. He didn’t want to pick a side and he hoped they could get along.

As he was approaching the library, he nearly jumped when he heard the voice he hated the most say, “Hey, Lenin, what’s the hurry?”

The albino lion quickly turned to his right and saw Isaac leaning against a wall, looking at his smartphone. The bully placed his phone into his pocket and just stared at him. Lenin was worried that he was going to hit him yet again. His body was frozen in place as the bane of his existence slowly approached him. When the bully got very close to Lenin, the albino lion’s heart was pounding furiously as cold sweat took over.

Lenin braced himself for the impact of a punch or a kick, but it never came. Instead, Isaac continued to stare down at him and then he simply…smirked at Lenin and said, “That was smart, I’ll give you that much.”

After that, he just walked away from him. Lenin couldn’t process exactly what he meant by that. Did he find out he talked to Antony and Leandro? Did he find out about Harry?

If it were the case for either of those things, he would have certainly lashed out in anger. There would be no way he would just let those things go like this. ‘ _Could it be that he said that just to confuse me? I…’_ he wondered in his mind.

Lenin hated Isaac. He hated how the bully could wreck him, even when there was no violence involved. The albino felt yet another panic attack growing, but he had to calm himself down.

 ** _‘You can’t even handle not being bullied, now?’_** The voice mocked him.

Lenin hated this voice. But regaining control over his body was difficult this time around. Harder than the previous times. It took him nearly half an hour to get a hold of himself. It shouldn’t be like this, especially when nothing bad actually happened. The confusion only further deteriorated Lenin’s mind.

The boy was about to return to the cafeteria, when he finally remembered about the book. He went to the library and hoped to be able to still catch up with his friends at the cafeteria.

___________________

Meanwhile, Jackson had sat down with his food tray, on the opposite side to Edward’s. As the jock started to eat, he noticed that the geeky lion was awfully quiet. Edward had finished his plate before the athlete went to get his and now he was just looking around, waiting for Lenin to come back.

The jock imagined that the only reason for the cold shoulder was due the fact he was “rude” to Harry. Jackson felt ashamed to falsely accuse Harry of bullying them, but he wasn’t entirely convinced he wouldn’t obey Isaac anymore. He would be alert in case got worse.

Then, the jock noticed that Lenin’s plate was only halfway eaten and it was cold by now. It shouldn’t take a long time to get to the library to get a single book. Jackson couldn’t remember of a single instance where the line was long.

“He’s…taking a long time to come back…” Jackson commented.

“Yeah…” Edward replied looking at the clock there.

Both teens were getting quite worried that something might have happened. Jackson quickly gobbled up his food and he stood up, “It’s getting late...I’ll go looking for him.”

Edward then stood up as well, “I’ll come too.” He was also intending to go after Lenin. While Jackson feared Lenin had bumped into Isaac, Edward was worried that his friend might have passed out in the corridors. He also noticed Lenin had barely touched his food. 

The two went straight to the library, to look for him there first. As they walked, Edward finally asked, “So, you and Lenin know each other for a long time?”

Jackson was a little surprised by that question, “I’ve known him for a long time. I’ve always talked to him, but he barely ever replied back. I did what I could to make others to stop mocking him, but…it wasn’t nowhere near enough.”

“Why do you want to help him?” Edward finally asked what has been at the back of his mind.

Jackson stopped on his tracks and looked at Edward as if he had asked the strangest question of them all. “Why? Blimey! It’s because it’s wrong!”

Edward’s anger flared, “Wrong? Aren’t you this school’s most popular guy? If you actually wanted to make them stop, you would have done so already! Did you care to know that Lenin has to endure a lot of horrible crap?”

“Of course, I knew he was being bullied. I did everything I could to make it stop. Do you think I’m omnipresent? Do you think I can control people’s thoughts and stop bad things from happening when I’m not there?” Jackson angrily rebutted.

Edward knew he was right, but he didn’t want to voice it. Seeing his silence, Jackson added, “You mentioned that I was popular…Let me guess, popular kids used to bully you.”

Edward blinked a couple of times in surprise, “Yes, how did you…”

The athlete sighed, “It wasn’t hard to notice your contempt towards me when we don’t even know each other. There are popular kids who are indeed bullies, I dislike them for it. Some of the guys at my team aren’t bad people, they thought that teasing Lenin was ‘fun’, but I made them stop.”

Edward then accused him, “Not bad people? They think that mocking and ridiculing others is fun? Why are you even trying to justify them?”

Jackson crossed his arms, “Like when you tried to justify Harry’s bullying?”

Edward was taken aback, “His case was different! Isaac is forcing him to do it!”

“And the guys at my team didn’t realize how much it hurts Lenin. They thought he was having fun as well, because they like to mock and tease each other in ‘good fun’. I made them understand that the crap they said only hurt him and that, if they continued, there would be consequences for it. They may be a little stupid sometimes, but they aren’t evil.” The jock explained to him.

After a brief pause, he continued, “I’m sorry you had to go through a hard time with the popular kids back in your other school, but I’m not them! You can’t just assume how I behave just because people here made me popular for some reason!”

Edward look ashamed after hearing all that. He had to admit he had been unfair to Jackson, “Look, I’m sorry…it’s just…”

Jackson sighed and then he said, “It’s okay…Wounds don’t disappear overnight.”

Edward was a tad impressed at the jock, but them he remembered, “Lenin! We didn’t find him yet.”

“Blimey! Let’s go!” Jackson said, as the two swiftly moved through the hallways calling for the albino lion.

___________________

As Lenin exited the library, he stumbled upon Jackson and Edward. He did not understand why there were there. Edward was the first one to speak, “Lenin, are you okay?”

The albino blinked a couple of times before replying, “Huh? I mean…yes. Why are you guys here? I was going to return to the cafeteria.”

Then Jackson replied, “You’ve been away for a long time, dude. We have like only ten minutes left for the break. We started to get worried and came looking for you.”

“Oh…” Lenin said. He really lost track of time thanks to Isaac.

Jackson then narrowed his eyes as he questioned Lenin, “What happened? Did Isaac do something to you?”

Lenin became flustered as he found an excuse, “No. I mean, I just…took a long time to find the book.” He finished showing it to them.

**_‘So, you lie to your so-called friends, huh?’_ **

Lenin didn’t want to tell about his panic attack because Edward would try drag him to the nurse and he didn’t mention Isaac to Jackson, because, this time, he really didn’t do anything and, even if Isaac had done anything to him, he didn’t want the jock to get hurt because of him.

However, it was painfully obvious the two weren’t buying the excuse. “We…uh…should be going to class now. Hurry!” Lenin quickly said as he walked to his classroom.

Jackson then said to Edward, “He’s hiding something…”

“Yes…I wish he could trust us more.” He replied.

“I’ll talk to him later. I promised to help him out with physical training after classes.” The jock explained.

Edward realized now why Lenin couldn’t come to his house that day. But he couldn’t help, but to smile. He was sure now the athlete meant well. He thanked Jackson for it, who smiled back at him.

Maybe the two could get along, after all.

___________________

Lenin found himself with difficulty to focus on the classes. Not only he was starting to feel a bit hungry, he also kept thinking on what Isaac meant by those words. _‘Could it be that he might stop bullying me?’_

**_‘You wish!’_ **

He had to agree with the voice. While it would be the best outcome, he highly doubted it. He dreaded what Isaac might be planning. He could at least avoid him getting o school now.

Once all classes were over, Lenin found Edward and they talked for a little while. The geeky lion questioned if everything was alright with him. Lenin assured him, he was fine and then the geeky lion gave him a piece of paper.

“This is my phone. We can talk later.” Edward explained. Before meeting with Lenin, Edward had stumbled across Jackson.

The geeky lion told him that he was going to share his number with Lenin, but the athlete had said, “I…don’t think he has a cellphone. I’ve never saw him using one before.”

That was why he chose to write down his number on a piece of paper. Lenin thanked him and then gave Edward the phone number of his house.

Lenin felt tremendous delight at this. He now had someone who he could actually talk to by phone. He thanked Edward multiple times and the geeky lion felt a little embarrassed, but he was happy as well.

After they said their byes, Lenin went to the locker room and changed into gym clothing. Afterwards, he straight to the gym and he found Jackson there already waiting for him.

“Hey, Lenin! Are you ready for this?” Jackson asked. He was also wearing his gym clothing as well.

Lenin wanted to say “Not really.”, but he didn’t. He knew he needed to put on the extra effort if he didn’t want to fail P.E. He was thankful Jackson was going to help him out with this.

Lenin placed his backpack next to Jackson’s on the lower part of the grandstand. He then walked towards the jock.

“Okay, let’s first start with a few stretches. Do as I do.” Jackson stated. Lenin nodded in agreement as he did his best to copy his movements.

Lenin’s body was already complaining when Jackson told him to try touch his own feet, only for the albino lion to barely be able to reach halfway through his leg. His back and leg muscles ached and part of him yelled at him to stop already.

Jackson could see his friend wasn’t in shape at all, so he told him, they were going to do light exercises and slowly build up his strength. He did a few other stretching exercises and, after that, he told Lenin to do a few jumping jacks with him.

As they did them, Lenin already started to sweat, while Jackson seemed to be just fine. The albino was a little jealous of that, but he knew he had to endure it. Once it was over, Jackson gave Lenin a moment for him to catch his breath again.

“Do you feel the burn, Lenin?” Jackson said, half-jokingly.

The other boy could only say, “This is worse than I thought it would be…”

Jackson gave him a smile and said, “Don’t get discouraged. Sure, it’s hard at first, but doing this at least three or four times per week, you’ll get in shape in no time.”

“At LEAST three or four times? Can’t you just make me to power through an entire week’s worth of exercises today?” Lenin protested. He hoped this would be, at most, a mere weekly session. 

However, the jock’s expression was now quite serious, “Lenin, doing less frequent exercises not only will have no effect, but it might be dangerous for your health. No one can handle sudden vigorous exercises. You might even barf or get really sick, if you overdo the exercises.”

“How can exercises be bad for me?” Lenin asked, feeling like he should already know the answer for that, but, while he somewhat liked biology, he never actually studied much about the impact of exercising in one’s health. He just assumed that doing any exercise was good.

“Our bodies need constant effort to get into shape. Imagine trying to only study a single day in a week and try to cram all subjects in a spam of an hour.” Jackson explained.

He was right, of course. Lenin, however, didn’t know if he would be able to keep up with it, however. But, as Serena had once told him, he had to put in the effort to improve, so he didn’t complain. Besides, Jackson was already spending his time just to help him out. The albino lion couldn’t just let him down like this.

After the pause was over, Jackson then told Lenin to run a few laps around the gym. Jackson ran alongside him, dictating the pacing. It was just a light run to start to not overdo Lenin’s body. Jackson found some light weights as well and he was going to have Lenin work out his arms as well.

The jock had noticed how scrawny Lenin’s arms were, so he was going to start things off with a 1kg weights and depending on Lenin’s performance, he would use heavier ones.

However, it never came to happen, because after just three laps, Lenin was breathless. His body became cold as his vision darkened. Before he passed out, he heard Jackson shouting his name.

A couple of minutes later, Lenin opened his eyes and he found himself laying on the floor. The first thing he heard as Jackson asking, with worry in his voice, “Are you alright, Lenin?”

The albino groaned as his body ached a little and he managed to sit down. He didn’t know why he had fainted. He had a relatively good night of sleep.

 ** _‘It’s because you’re way too fragile and pathetic. You can’t even handle some petty exercises. Look at him. He didn’t even break a sweat, while you are drenched in it already.’_** The voice ridiculed him.

“I’m sorry, Jackson. I don’t know what happened…” Lenin said as he tried to get up, but Jackson stopped him.

“Sit here for a little longer. I’ll be right back.” He then went towards his own backpack. The jock was shocked at how light Lenin actually was. He managed to hold his friend before he fainted, however he didn’t imagine that he would be so light.

He should have known this would happened, but he ended up forgetting Lenin barely had any lunch, so his sugar levels must be low.

When the jock returned to Lenin, he handed him over an energy bar. Lenin initially refused, but Jackson said, “You’re hungry, aren’t you? You left most of your food on the plate earlier. This can happen when you do exercises without proper nutrition.”

After hearing his stomach growl, he ended up accepting the bar. “Thanks, Jackson.” He said, feeling ashamed.

“Blimey, Lenin! Did you really just forget to eat or did something happen earlier?” Jackson pressed. He was thorn whether or not he should give Lenin space, but the situation looked quite dire as it is.

“Nothing happened!” Lenin said exasperated. He didn’t want to drag Jackson into Isaac’s weird mind games.

However, the jock was still unconvinced. “And you skipped lunch over nothing, then?”

Lenin didn’t reply to that, as he just stared away, not wanting to meet Jackson’s gaze. The athlete sighed and sat down on the floor next to Lenin, who opened the bar and started to eat it.

“I’m sorry if I sounded harsh, but I’m worried about you. I…know you’re probably scared to tell me what’s going on, but you can trust me.” Jackson told Lenin as the albino lion munched the food.

After brief pause, the jock continued, “I think we should stop for today. You need to eat properly, Lenin. If you don’t, your body won’t handle the exercises. We can continue tomorrow.”

Lenin couldn’t really argue against that, but he replied, “Sorry, I can’t tomorrow. I’m gonna meet Edward after school…”

Jackson then tapped his chin and then said, “Alright, I’ll stop by your house this weekend and we can start your training then.”

“This weekend? I mean, sure, but aren’t you going to be busy?” Lenin had no plans whatsoever for weekends. The highlights for him were using the computer or watching his TV. That was, when he was feeling motivated enough to do something.

“There’s no problem at all. We can do that around 9 a.m., if you can.” Jackson suggested.

Lenin then remembered that the twins would come to his house to share some food with him, but he forgot to ask which hour they would drop by. It would probably be during afternoon, so he agreed to it.

The albino lion was feeling well enough to stand again and then he said, “Thanks a lot, Jackson. I meant it. You don’t have to do all this just for me and I feel like I’m wasting your time.”

The jock gently patted him on the back as he replied, “Lenin, stop. I’ve already told you, there’s no issue here. Besides, I’ll be training alongside you. You’re a nice person and I’ll be dammed if I just let the teacher to fail you. I know you go through a lot, but it’ll all end soon. I’ll be sure of it.”

Lenin felt overjoyed at the words, but he was also terrified of them. Isaac would eat him alive, if they were to clash. He could not let the two confront. Ever. Lenin would not be able to live with himself if got someone else hurt.

The albino lion then swiftly changed subject, “I suppose it’s time for me to go home now. Thanks a lot for everything Jackson. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

However, the jock wasn’t going to let it go so easily, “Hang on. I’ll come with you to your house.”

Lenin blinked a couple of time and inquired him, “Why? There’s no need for that, really.”

Part of him was embarrassed to show his house to other people, while the other part of him simply didn’t want to bother Jackson any further.

“There is. Isaac might be out of detention by now and I won’t let him get anywhere near you.” The jock explained.

This only made Lenin worry even more. He hoped that if they could leave the school fast enough, they could leave school before Isaac left his detention.

“Okay…But let’s hurry, alright.” Lenin reluctantly conceded.

“No problem. Let me just put everything back to their place and lock things down. I need to get the key back to the teacher.” Jackson explained.

___________________

Thankfully, they were able to change back to their regular clothing and leave school without meeting Isaac. The albino lion was incredibly relieved for this respite.

As they walked, they talked about many things. Jackson even shared his dream of making into the professional basketball league with him.

 ** _‘Another person whose future is already planned out. You are the only true failure around here. Maybe Isaac will be able to get a good job before you do.’_** The voice taunted him yet again.

Then Jackson then asked, “What do you want to do after high school?”

That was the million-dollar question for Lenin. He had no idea. When he was younger, he had dreamed of being a musician or teaching foreign languages. He had even bought books to teach himself French and German, because he wanted to travel around the world someday. But learning new languages by himself proved to be quite hard for him, especially when his motivation to focus started to go downhill.

And so, his dreams decayed overtime and he found himself merely drifting in an ocean of uncertainty and without any desire to row towards any direction.

“I’m not sure yet.” It initially replied, but he didn’t want Jackson to pity him any more than he already did, so he added, “For now, I think I’ll just join the school band. The auditions are going to be next week.”

Jackson’s ears flickered at the mention of the school band, “Really? That’s cool, Lenin! I hope you get into it.”

The albino lion smiled and thanked him for it. It didn’t take long for them to get to Lenin’s house. Fortunately, Jackson’s home was going further to the left of his friend’s house, so the detour didn’t weight Lenin’s conscience even more.

The two said their byes and Lenin got into his house. He didn’t see his mother around, so he shouted, “Mom, I’m home!”

“Lenin???” He heard his mother saying from upstairs as she quickly got down. After she saw her son just fine, her anger surfaced a little.

“WHERE WERE YOU? You should have arrived an hour ago! I was just talking to the principal and he said you weren’t at school anymore! What were you doing?” She demanded, in an aggressive tone. She was worried sick for him. Usually, Lenin only arrived late or when he was bullied. But he seemed to be just fine.

 **“Am I not allowed to have friends now?”** The voice said with a drip of venom. Lenin immediately closed his mouth after that.

His mother was taken aback, “Friends? What friends?”

It hurt Lenin that his mother couldn’t tell the difference between him and this strange voice. He tried to suppress such feelings as he replied, “Jackson and Edward. I was with Jackson just now.” He explained.

She didn’t know who these were, however, his mother wasn’t sure if they were actually his friends or “Are you sure of it? Did you approach them, or did they approach you? Do you remember what happened with…?” She stopped herself from mentioning Michael. She knew how much that still hurt her son.

The lioness just wanted to make sure her son was safe. There was a lot of cruel people in this town and she didn’t need some convoluted plot to make their lives even more miserable.

Lenin gritted his teeth. He didn’t need to reminded of Michael. He then explained, “Edward is new at the school because his family just moved into the town. And as for Jackson, he had never bullied me. They are good people.” He didn’t go into details.

His mother wanted to believe him, but she couldn’t. Experience told her otherwise, but to flat out forbidding him from making friends, even if it turned out to be just a sinister plot, would make their relationship unsalvageable.

“Just be careful, alright?” She finally said.

“I’ll be.” He replied, drily. He didn’t need her to throw seeds of doubt about them. He wanted to trust them. He wanted to have friends. He wanted to be normal. _‘Why can’t I have a little of support?’_

 _‘ **Are you really blaming her? You know damn well why she’s so worried and yet, you’re angry at her for it. You don’t even deserve her attention.’** _The voice berated him.

The two stayed there in an uncomfortable silence for quite some time, until his mother finally said, “I’m still finishing dinner, go wash up.”

And so, Lenin did without saying anything. His mother was disappointed with herself. She just wanted to show concern to him and it ended up straining their relationship further.

One hour later, the two ate in absolute silence per usual. However, as Lenin was helping washing the dishes, he asked her permission, “Tomorrow I’ll get home late too. I’ll go to Edward’s house after classes. Is it alright?”

“It’s okay…just be home by dinner.” She said, hoping nothing bad would come out of it. She still thought her son was still mad at her initial accusation, but she decided to not say anything about it. She didn’t know how to convey how she truly feel to him. She wanted to be able to say, “I love you, son”, but she feared he might lash out in anger, given how she behaved in the past.

As for Lenin, he also loved his mother. He also didn’t want his relationship with her to fall apart. All the problems they ever had stemmed from him. He was the one who made the town hate their family. He was the one who brought misery to his household. He argued with himself that he could not fault her for him to not bring further pain to them.

This, however, this was the biggest issue Serena constantly warned them about. They lacked communication and understanding, which could lead to grave misunderstandings.

End of chapter 8


	9. Mistakes

The History teacher had his back towards the class as he wrote “History of Samiga” on the board. After he finished, he turned to his students and said, “Well, class, today we are going to learn a little about our town’s history. Does anyone know why this place is known as the Rose Village? Aside, from tourist trapping reasons, of course.”

Only a handful of students found it funny, Lenin included. The teacher gave everyone a minute to see if anyone would raise their hand, but the only one to do so was Leandro, who answered in a sheepish manner, “Because of that big flower shop we have?”

The teacher smiled and said, “That’s the tourist trap part, but good guess.”

The adult turned his back to the class as he drew a rose on the board, “There used to be a tradition which everyone used to plant a white rose in their yards. The number of roses were a symbol of family members and people this family held dear to them. But it started to die out around the time your grandparents were kids, decades ago. Does anyone have any idea why?”

He knew probably nobody knew the question for that, given how nobody knew his first question either. But he wanted to invite his students to talk, to take a risk, even if the answer was wrong. There were also cases when some students did know the answer, but were too shy to voice it. He wanted his students to leave their shells and be bolder.

However, given the silence, the teacher chose to continue, “The reason while simple, was a sad one. It caused a lot of fighting. People used to argue over them a lot. When someone didn’t add a rose right after making a friend, they would fight because of it. Other times, when friends fought each other, they would remove one rose in a fit of anger.”

He then gave the class his best ‘fellow kids’ impression as he continued, “Not to mention the grandparents of ‘trolls’ who plucked roses from other people’s yards just to see neighbors fighting over it. Imagine it like an archaic form of social media. The roses were akin to friend list on Facebook.”

Many students rolled their eyes and held back the need to groan at the teacher trying to use internet metaphors, but the teacher was unaware of it, “It’s amazing and frighting, isn’t it? A mere rose being planted, cared and loved can turn into a symbol of hate, by simply being plucked from the ground.”

The teacher walked around the class as he continued, “The fighting got so bad, people decided to just drop the tradition. There was even a law banning people from having any flower on their yard that lasted for 16 years. It was eventually revoked, because people just wanted flowers to use as decoration and nothing more. And so, the tradition died, but the nickname of our little town remained.”

Some students were completely uninterested on that, others were taking notes, but only a few actually gave it deeper thought to it.

One of the students who was taking notes raised a hand and asked, “Will this be on our exam?”

The teacher laughed a little and said, “No. This was just to teach you about an interesting fact about this town. Not everything worthwhile knowing needs to be on a test.”

The student lowered his hand and groaned a little, feeling like he had wasted their time, but after seeing such reaction from multiple students as well, the teacher said, “But, THIS will be on your exam. Our town was founded on 1…”

___________________

The alarm clock woke Lenin up with a jolt. He quickly looked around at the source of the sound and once he realized it was just the alarm, he sighed in relief and turned it off. He still wasn’t used to sleeping so much.

 _‘Why do I feel so tired, though?’_ He had to cogitate. He didn’t even have a nightmare. It took a lot out of his to go on with his morning routine. He then realized his mother had left quite early for her job and she only left him a note explaining she would arrive home late that day.

 ** _‘See how much she wants to avoid you. Talking back at her yesterday only made her despise you more. Do you have no shame?’_** The voice took a jab at him.

Lenin’s mental state deteriorated at the sheer silence of the house. The loneliness crept into his heart as the voice continued, ‘ ** _Stuff your mouth with food and go pretend that you’re having an education. Edward won’t be able to teach you anything, because you don’t even want to learn.’_**

The teen’s stomach hurt as the voice kept torturing him. He didn’t want to eat anything, but he didn’t want to repeat what happened the previous day. He sighed as he just ate cereal with milk and hoped it would be enough for him.

He looked at the kitchen drawer where his anti-depressants were kept and cogitated having them, ‘ ** _Why bother? You even had a half-decent night of sleep without them anyway. You can always take them later, if you actually need them.’_** The voice chimed in.

The boy mulled over that and he decided to not take them. However, he was worried of what he would say to Serena next week. ‘ ** _You lied to your mother, but you’re worried about lying to a complete stranger?’_**

The guilt came down crashing on him. He didn’t know what to do or what to say when the situation arrived. All he could do was push everything to the back of his mind and hope he would have the answer for his problems by then.

He got up from his chair and finished tidying up things.

___________________

As Lenin approached the school’s wall, he was glad to see the stone still in its place and once he was certain nobody was around, he quickly climbed it and jumped over, clumsily falling to the other side, but it didn’t hurt much. After he got up he quickly patted his body to take any dust off his clothing.

However, his body froze on the spot as he heard, a slow clap accompanied by someone saying, “I give your fall a six out of ten.”

It was Isaac.

Isaac had a strange smile on his face, different from the other times when he just insulted or hurt him. Seeing such calm expression on Isaac’s face, for some reason, filled his heart with pure dread.

“I figured as much you were doing something like that to avoid me. I came early multiple days and didn’t see you going through the normal access to the school. At first, I thought that you decided to just come here before dawn or something.” Isaac started rambling.

Then he snapped his fingers, as he said, “But then I realized you were plotting something. I know you are a giant loser, but even you wouldn’t be friends with someone who gives you a beating. Unless…you’re more of a doormat than I imagined.” He said with a toothy smile to mock him.

Lenin said nothing. He couldn’t even move. He didn’t know and didn’t want to know where Isaac was going with this.

“Not gonna deny it? My, my, you might give someone the wrong impression, Lenin.” He said laughing to himself. It was rare for him to call the albino lion by his name. He then continued, “I figured as much that the whole rumor of you and that nerd fighting were lies. But one thing about it did pick my interest. They said, you two were fighting here, of all places.”

Then Isaac started to walk around Lenin, who was still immobile, listening to the ravings of this lunatic, “I decided to do my own investigation and found that stone on the other side of this wall. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I don’t recall that stone being there before.”

He then walked right in front of Lenin and asked, “Well, Lenin, do you remember that stone being there? Hmm? Or did you put it there, so you could climb over the wall?”

Lenin opened his mouth to answer, but no words came out. Isaac even mocked him by turning his face and placing a hand around his ear as he asked, “Can you speak louder? I cannot hear you.”

“I…I...d-id, p-pu-t it t-he-re.” Lenin stuttered. That was the best he could accomplish given his situation. Was Isaac going to take revenge on him for it? Would it have been better to just have the same-old beating, instead of trying to avoid Isaac? Lenin didn’t know the answer for any of these questions.

“Not only you’re a colorless freak, you’re now a stammerer as well? Your mother must be very ashamed to have given birth to you.” The bully ridiculed him as he stopped on Lenin’s left.

He leaned towards Lenin and whispered, “I also know that the fatso didn’t do anything to you.”

This made Lenin’s eyes go wide and his body was shaking hard now. “You must think I’m stupid, if I can’t put two and two together. I know you pretend to be fine after a beating, but there are easy to spot signs. For example, you like to put your hand or arm over your wounds for many hours after I hit you, and your expressions become quite forced and unnatural.”

Isaac tapped his chin in mock thought as he added, “You need to do better than that. I know adults are stupid, but if you keep slipping up like that, they might be suspicious.”

Even the adults who cared about Lenin didn’t interact much with the boy, so they never noticed the tics he had. Lenin hated the fact that Isaac knew so much about him. It sometimes felt like he could read his mind or something.

But the truth was that the bully actually paid a lot of attention to his victims. He didn’t do it out of pleasure or even curiosity. It was to ensure that they would never tell on him. By knowing everything about others, he could dominate them. In some cases, he could resort to blackmail, if he found something juicy enough for it.

His fear tactics have worked for many years now, but in the past couple of days, it felt like his control has been slipping through his fingers, ever since Edward came to school. The geeky lion was brave enough to talk back at him and now Isaac’s so-called friends were not obeying his orders.

He caught Leandro and Antony making excuses to not steal other kid’s money, before yesterday’s lunch break, and then Harry lied to him about beating Edward and Lenin. Isaac would not allow that. He would tighten the leash and show everyone who ruled that school.

Isaac stood on Lenin’s left and put his arm around Lenin’s shoulders and brought him closer to his body. The albino was scared beyond words. It gave Isaac tremendous satisfaction, because it showed how the albino still feared him. Who knew that fake kindness could be so frightening? The feeling of absolute power over another person was…addictive for the bully.

Still, Lenin dared to make a friend and someone was stupid enough to befriend a freak, in Isaac’s eyes and he felt like he had the duty to end this. It wouldn’t be the first time for him, anyway.

“Say, freak, do you ever…regretted being born?” Isaac suddenly asked.

This made Lenin’s body flinch, “Wha-at do you me-an?” he managed to answer as the grip around his shoulder tightened. Lenin wanted to scream for help, to run away. But he didn’t have the strength, or courage to do so.

“I know you’re dumb, but you’re not that stupid. I’ll make it easier for you. Have you ever wondered why do I bully you so much?”

 ** _‘Because he’s a sick bastard.’_** The voice said in Lenin’s mind. While he agreed, he would not dare voice it, “No…”

Isaac shook his head as his grip tightened once more. Lenin’s shoulder was hurting, but he couldn’t complain, “It’s because you were born weak! You think the world owns you something for giving you the middle finger and making you be born an aberration? No! The only way you could possibly have any friends is because they pity you. They feel so sorry for you they want to cheer you up, just to ease their own consciences, not because they actually care.”

Isaac continued, “They want to help you out, so they can stroke their own egos because they feel like they somehow failed you, even though they are not responsible for your condition. I do this to you, because I don’t want a freak to feel entitled to other people’s pity help. Nobody would be your friend, if pity wasn’t involved. Do you want to be happy? **Stand on your own two feet for a change**. But you can’t do that, can’t you?”

Lenin stared at Isaac in sheer disbelief. Not because of the things he said, but because of how he said them. While Isaac knew Lenin’s quirks, the opposite was true as well. The bully seemed to genuinely believe in every word he had just said, given the lack of jeer in is voice.

The albino didn’t know how to react to any of this, so he stayed quiet, submissive and…‘ ** _Weak’_** the dark voice added. He didn’t need it to fuel his low self-esteem. Lenin had always told himself that accepting Isaac’s bullying was the least bad outcome for him. And so, he meekly nodded in agreement.

Lenin seemed to have guessed correctly because Isaac merely smiled at him, finally letting his arm go. “I’m glad you know your place, freak.” The albino, however, immediately raised his other hand to rub his wounded arm.

However, the bully quickly grabbed his hand and squeezed it. It took a lot out of Lenin to not yell in pain. “What did I tell you about your petty habit? I know you are pathetic, but are you stupid as well?”

Lenin said nothing and just took it, however the pain has become so great, he fell on his knees. He wanted to beg him to stop, but from his experience, begging only made Isaac crueler. “You better be on your best behavior today, freak.” The bully ominously ordered him.

The wounded teen didn’t know what Isaac meant by that, since Lenin always did his absolute best to not bring attention to himself.

After that, the bully let go of Lenin, turned his back and went towards the school to finish the preparations for his plan.

As for the albino lion, as soon as the monster left his light of sight, he allowed himself to cry softly as his left hand pounded in pain. He regrated leaving his house, but he couldn’t return there, otherwise, he would have to face his mother’s anger.

It took him a around ten minutes to finally calm down, constantly telling himself that he should already be used to this and that Isaac might have been satisfied for the rest of the day.

 ** _‘Why must you lie to yourself?’_** The voice asked, in a soft tone.

___________________

The albino lion was thankful that his hand wasn’t broken. A dark curious part of him had to wonder if Isaac actually knew how much pain he could inflict without causing visible damage or if it was sheer luck.

In any case, he had dried his tears and he had to maintain a poker face for the rest of the day. He didn’t even feel like going to Edward’s house after class. He had to think of some excuse and pray that his friend wouldn’t upset by this.

Lenin was dragged out of his thoughts when he felt a hand over his shoulder from behind him and he nearly jumped, thinking it was Isaac once more. The albino lion quickly turned and saw Jackson there, “Sorry for scaring you, Lenin! I just wanted to say Good…”

But then the jock saw that Lenin’s eyes were still a little red from his crying earlier. “What happened?” Jackson asked, with his anger rising inside of him. He was certain something had happened to his friend and he would get to the bottom of this.

“Wha…? Nothing happened, Jackson. Really.” Lenin tried to quickly dismiss it.

“Your eyes puffy and red. You’ve been crying, weren’t you. Who bullied you? Was it Isaac? I’ll kill that asshole!” Jackson snarled.

The albino lion wanted to kick himself for not going to the bathroom first to make sure his face didn’t show any signs of crying. He couldn’t believe he had forgotten to do something so basic this time around.

 ** _‘You’re getting sloppy._** ’ The voice reprimanded him.

“It’s really nothing, Jackson. I got something in my eyes and it was big pain to take them out. I’m fine now.” He quickly lied. The last thing he wanted was to drag his friend into this whole mess.

**_‘At least you’re quick witted to lie.’_ **

The jock, however, wasn’t convinced. But he was afraid to push too much and end up hurting Lenin in the process. He then decided to change subjects to something that he had been mulling over since the previous day, “Hey, Lenin, can I ask you a favor?”

“A favor?” Lenin repeated, not even sure what Jackson could even want from him.

“You see…” The jock then scratched the back of his head feeling quite awkward, “Blimey…uh…There’s this girl…and she has been part of the band for a couple of years now and I bet she’s going to audition again. So…could you introduce us?”

Lenin blinked a couple of times, not really processing what just happened, “Sure…But why don’t you just talk to her? Basically, every girl in this school fawns over you. I…don’t know why do you need me at all…”

Jackson felt a little ashamed to admit it, but he then said, “You see…I’m kinda shy when it comes to this stuff…”

“I…thought you’ve had several girlfriends by now. I’ve heard many of them claiming that you took them on dates before.” Lenin asked, with a strange sense of dread building up inside of him.

 ** _‘He’s not your friend.’_** The dark voice said. But Lenin tried to push it away.

The athlete sighed as he waved his hand to dismiss it, “They’re a bunch of rumors and exaggerations. Helping a classmate with carrying their science project back home or teaming up with them for a class assignment are dates. I wish they would stop with it.”

_‘What’s the deal with this town and their rumors…’_

**_‘Bored people like to butt into other people’s lives._** **’** The voice answered for him.

Then the jock asked him, looking around making sure people weren’t eavesdropping their conversation. The athlete didn’t need people fueling more nonsensical gossips, “Can you help me, Lenin? It’s okay if you can’t. I know this can be super awkward.”

 ** _‘If you say no, he’ll ditch you.’_** The voice said, creating a vice grip around the albino lion’s heart.

 _‘No, he won’t! he’s a good person!’_ Lenin countered.

**_‘I’ve told you. He’s only your friend because he wanted something out of you. As soon as you do him this favor, he’ll ditch you like the vermin you are.’_ **

_‘SHUT UP! He wouldn’t do that to me! We’re friends!’_ Lenin tried to rebut it. He dreaded that this would be the case, but he didn’t want to admit it.

**_‘Screaming, does not change reality, you know? He doesn’t care about you at all. Nobody does. Not Jackson, not Edward, nor even your own mother. Just wait and see.’_ **

“Sure…” Lenin meekly said. He didn’t oppose to the idea of helping Jackson, besides, he owed him big time. Doing this was the bare minimum he could do to repay him.

“Blimey! Thanks a lot, Lenin! I owe you big time!” Jackson said with a giant smile, which made Lenin feel guilty for even cogitating Jackson was being a fake friend to him.

“I’m the one who owes you…” Lenin said, feeling embarrassed and no longer being able to look straight at Jackson.

“Nonsense! You’re my friend. If you need anything, just tell me, dude. I’ll do whatever I can to help.” The athlete said, trying to make Lenin as comfortable as possible and to make him trust the jock enough to tell him who is hurting him.

Lenin smiled back and thanked him for that.

‘ ** _You’re setting up yourself for disappointment.’_**

___________________

While Lenin struggled to focus during his classes, Isaac was setting his plan in motion. Between periods, he called Antony, Leandro and Harry to the back of the school for a “talk”.

“Isaac, we don’t have much time, the bell for the next class will ring soon. What is it?” Harry asked in both annoyance and a lingering sense of dread.

The bully grinned as he approached Harry and then said, “What’s the hurry, fatso? It’s not like you don’t cheat in your exams anyway.” Isaac didn’t find out that Harry actually liked to study, but he was still quite angry at him for lying yesterday.

Harry didn’t like the insult, but it was better than be bullied for being a “nerd”, “But we’ll get in trouble. You’re still in detention, won’t things become worse for you if you’re late to class?”

Isaac gave Harry a creepy grin as he said, “Ah, Harry, you’re such a great friend. I’m so happy that you’re always looking out for me.”

This sent a chill down the spine of the twins as Harry gave him a puzzled look. He wasn’t used at being praised by Isaac and only vaguely suspected that something might be amiss here.

He didn’t get the chance to say anything as Isaac sucker punched him on his gut, making Harry fall on his knees and the twins jump in surprise.

“Harry!” Leandro exclaimed as he rushed towards his friend.

“What the hell, Isaac? What is wrong with you?” Antony ended up shouting as he instinctively stayed between his brother, who was helping Harry getting up, and Isaac.

Isaac held back his anger at the accusation, he then said, with a calm tone, “He lied to me. He told me he would teach that new nerd we have at the school and the freak a lesson yesterday and guess what? He didn’t do anything to them.” He finished pointing at Harry.

He then turned to Antony and accused him as well, “Are you going to be against me as well? I already had to teach you two a lesson twice this week. Friends shouldn’t fight friends.”

This revolted Antony as he didn’t consider Isaac his friend for a very long time now, when he started abusing other people for his own benefit. Antony had to admit he had his fair share of guilt in this when he participated in mocking others with Isaac without having to coerced. He thought it was in “good fun” and nobody was actually getting hurt, but now he could no longer stop Isaac and he regrated enabling him.

 _‘I should have listened to my brother and got away from this crazy bastard when I had the chance.’_ Antony thought.

___________________

Back when they were ten years old, Antony was having a blast hanging out with Isaac. They were quite adventurous and liked to explore many places, in the woods nearby. The adults always said to stay away from there, but Isaac convinced him to go there.

He had to admit that disobeying his parents had a certain thrill to it, especially because nothing bad happened ever happened. It gave the young lion a sensation he knew better than his parents. The only downside for it, for him was because his brother, Leandro always tagged along.

Leandro has always been a worrywart and was quite a party pooper for saying that going to the woods was dangerous and that they should play near their house instead. Antony rolled his eyes at his brother. Leandro was even against mocking other kids, like Harry and Lenin at school.

Antony saw that as just playing around and that everyone else should have a thicker skin. He just hoped his brother’s behavior didn’t make others mock them instead. The irony of such thought had escaped him at the time.

During their summer vacation, Isaac invited Antony to play in the woods after lunch, and Leandro, once again, tagged along, worrying about his brother.

“Don’t embarrass me in front of my friends, you know.” Antony firmly told his brother.

“Why can’t we just play at the playground? It’s much safer. Also, I don’t like Isaac, he’s mean…” Leandro countered.

“He isn’t mean! What’s wrong in mocking people a little. Nobody is getting hurt.” Antony replied back as they walked.

Once they arrived at their meeting point, they saw Isaac and Harry together. The twins found this strange because Isaac, and Antony to some extent, had both mocked the boy because of his weight.

“Hey, Antony…and Leandro.” Isaac said, not really liking to see both of them there. Isaac didn’t like Leandro in the slightest. It was because Leandro was always nagging and ruining a lot of the fun. The only reason why he didn’t mock Leandro as well was because he didn’t want to ruin his friendship with Antony.

But Isaac had hope that this could change, if Antony realized his brother could use some “light bullying” to make him stop being so much of a goody-two-shoes nuisance.

As for Harry’s presence there, Isaac tricked him going there under the false promise that he would stop bullying the chubby lion if he tagged along for a little adventure. The truth was that he just wanted to use Harry for his plan and use him as bait, if something bad happened.

To the bully, this was the only thing that could make him feel strong. He liked having power over others, since he felt like had none back in his own home. He wanted to show everyone, and himself, he wasn’t some helpless victim of circumstance. He wanted to feel important, feared, worshiped even.

Antony greeted his friend, “Hey, Isaac. What are you doing?”

As for Leandro, he was the one to acknowledge Harry was there. The chubby lion greeted him back and was clearly quite nervous to be there. He hoped Isaac wasn’t going to make him do anything dangerous. He wanted the bullying to stop, which was the only reason why he even agreed to come.

He liked Leandro a little, but had a profound distaste for Isaac and Antony. The chubby lion had to wonder if the whole good/evil twin tales were actually true.

Isaac gave a big smile and said, “Come! I have something planned deeper into the woods. I found something really cool!”

“Deeper into the woods? You’re aware some wild animal can get us, right?” Leandro complained and Harry silently agreed.

Isaac groaned and said, “Don’t be such a coward! There was nothing there when I found it yesterday.”

“Leandro, be quiet, okay” Antony also berated his brother, annoyed that he was so uncool and frightened over nothing.

The four of them walked deeper into the forest. The more they strolled, the slowly noticed that the trees were getting taller and their foliage thicker. The sunlight was barely able to reach the ground. The chirping of birds was the only thing that kept the place from looking haunted.

It didn’t take long until they’ve found what Isaac was talking about. It was at the side of a hill. Isaac pointed at an area that looked a little disjointed on the hill and said, “There’s a cave behind it. That’s just a cover some adults use to hide it.”

From distance, it could easily trick others into thinking it was a natural part of the mound, but as they got closer to it, it looked like a giant piece of wood covered with dirt to blend in with the rest of the hill.

Leandro wanted to bail immediately, but he wasn’t going to leave without his brother.

Antony wasn’t scared, but he really wasn’t much impressed by it, so he asked, “Did you find something cool inside?”

Isaac smiled and replied, “Yes. I found out some adults come here all the time and they hide stuff inside. I saw some bottles, some cigarettes and other weird stuff! There even were some small bags of flour, for some reason.”

Antony wondered if it was some cooking place, but this was a really odd choice for cooking. He then asked, “Is this their hideout or something?”

“Looks like it. I saw they bringing all the stuff and telling they would have a lot of fun later. Let’s try out their stuff!” Isaac said, helping himself into the cave.

“What? Are you crazy? We can’t steal from other! Besides, what if they show up? They would be very angry!” Leandro protested.

This annoyed Isaac a lot, but he countered, “We aren’t going to take it all. Just some of grown up stuff to try it out. There was so much stuff, I doubt they would even miss it. Besides, we aren’t going inside to get their stuff. Harry will.”

The chubby lion swallowed dry fully knowing what Isaac was planning. “Me? What if someone comes and see me? I don’t want this kind of trouble.”

Isaac snarled while pushing his index finger against Harry’s chest, “You’ll do that if, you want to be my friend!”

“Ugh! I’ll do it!” Antony proclaimed, feeling quite annoyed by it. ‘ _So what if they’re scared. I’m not!_ ’ he thought.

As Antony grabbed the wood to push it sideways, he noticed it was quite sturdy and heavy. He grunted as he used all of his strength to move it sideways all the way out of the cave’s entrance, failing to notice the trap. The owners of the cave didn’t want anyone finding out about their illicit material inside, so they made it so, that, in order to safely open it, one person should slide it just a little to the side, so they could get in.

Removing the cover completely would cause a cave in.

As soon as Antony slid the wood past the safe point, the wall collapsed and the rocks started to collapse. The young boy was frozen as it all happened at once. But he was saved in the nick of time by his brother who dashed to push him out of the way.

The wall fell over Leandro’s legs and some of the falling rocks ricocheted and hit his face. Isaac and Harry looked in horror as it all happened.

“Leandro!” Antony shouted as he tried to drag his brother from under the wall. But it was much heavier than it looked.

“Help, me please!” Antony shouted to Isaac, who looked very nervous.

“I’ll get some help!” he proclaimed as he bailed away from the area.

Leandro screamed in pain as it felt like it broke his leg and his face was bleeding a little from the impact of the rocks. Thankfully they mostly gave superficial cuts, but his legs hurt like crazy.

To Antony’s surprise, Harry rushed towards them and told Leandro, “You’ll have to crawl once we lift it. Help me, Antony!”

Antony blinked a little at seeing him wanting to help them out. With Harry’s help he was able to lift the wall just enough for the boy to crawl all the way out the wall. But doing so was excruciating for him.

Once he was relatively safe, Leandro felt his energy leaving his body. The other two boys dropped the wall and moved over to Leandro, who was panting a lot.

“Are you okay, Antony?” his twin asked. Antony felt guilty crushing his heart as his brother was more worried about him than with himself.

“Of course, I am! I’m the one who should be asking that! Why did you do this? You could have died!” Antony asked as he looked around for Isaac, who was now gone. Antony hoped he had gone to call for help.

Leandro looked confused, but his expression quickly turned into pain as his body ached, “Why? We’re brothers. I love you, you know…” The pain was too much for the boy to handle and he ended up fainting as a result.

“Leandro! Leandro! Are you okay? Open your eyes, please!” Antony shouted as he looked around with still no sign of Isaac or any adult.

“Maybe we should carry him?” Harry tried to suggest.

“We can’t move him. His legs are broken. If we try carry him, we might hurt him even more.” Antony said, very distressed.

“I…will try finding someone too, then.” Harry said, worried that something bad might happen to Leandro if they just sit around for long.

Antony didn’t want to be alone and he was certain Isaac would be back soon. Besides, he didn’t expect Harry to come back at all, not that he would blame him. Antony was at least happy that the chubby lion helped removing his brother from under the wall. He already did more than Antony expected him to, so he agreed with Harry’s plan while he waited for his friend to return with help.

Half an hour passed and Isaac should have been back already with help. They weren’t that far from the town. Antony was starting to get desperate. His brother wasn’t waking up and he feared he might die at this pace.

“Over there!” he heard someone shouting from distance. Antony thought it was Isaac, but it turned out to be Harry with a few adults, one police officer was among them.

They helped carrying Leandro to the hospital and there they were able to contact the kids’ parents. The officer waited patiently for their parents to arrive to ask the kids questions about what had happened over there and why were the kids playing by a cave.

Antony and Harry told them that they were exploring the woods and found a strange door and when they opened it, the cave collapsed. They wanted to leave out the part of the stuff inside the cave, since neither of them wanted any trouble. Antony would have to beg his brother to corroborate the story once he woke up.

But the thought also filled him with dread. ‘What if he never wakes up? Will he die because of me? I…can’t…I…should have listened to him.’

Needless to say, the kids were chewed by their parents for disobeying their orders. The police officer also contacted Isaac’s parents to see if the boy would corroborate the story. He also would have to launch an investigation on that cave. There were rumors of drugs being smuggled into the town and that might be their den.

At first, Isaac tried to deny he was there, but since he was caught, he tried to twist the whole thing to be Antony and Leandro’s fault for dragging him to the forest. After being heavily pressured by his own parents, he ended up telling the police officers everything he had seen, which helped the police track down the drug dealers in their town.

Leandro had a few broken bones, but he recovered in due time. Both boys were grounded for the rest of their vacation for disobeying them and risking their lives in the woods, but they allowed their punishment to start after Leandro was discharged from the hospital. Antony wouldn’t leave his brother’s side for nothing.

Antony had learned that there was no shame in loving his own brother. It wasn’t a weakness like Isaac always claimed it to be. Antony would no longer let Isaac say ill things about his brother.

Weeks passed and twins’ parents decided to release them from their punishment a week before the vacation ended, because they were sure their boys had learned their lesson.

When the boys finally were able to go out again, the first thing Antony did was to go to Isaac’s house. He was still furious at him for abandoning them like that and for trying to pin the blame on them for the whole thing. Thankfully, his parents believed the that Isaac was the root of the problem, given his reputation of being a troublemaker.

Isaac hadn’t been released from his punishment, but he was allowed to go talk to his “friend”. The bully was livid at Antony for snitching on him, “Why did you tell them I was there? Do you have any idea how much my parents complained?”

Antony bared his teeth at him at the accusation, “You ditched us! You told me you would get help, but instead you ran back home and tried to pretend everything was okay! Leandro could have died!”

“He was fine, wasn’t he? Why are you so protective of him anyway? He’s weak and annoying.” Isaac said, clearly upset at his friend not taking his side on this matter. But Antony wasn’t having any of it.

“He’s my brother! Guess what? His legs were broken and he could have died from infection!”

Isaac’s ear flickered at that part and his expression got a little dark, “So, he’s bound to a wheelchair too?”

Antony didn’t catch at the time exactly what Isaac’s tone meant, “No. He thankfully was able to recover. That piece of wood had metal inside of it to hold itself in place, that was why it was so heavy. Besides, you should have come back! My brother got hurt because of your dumb idea.” Antony then pressed a finger against Isaac’s chest as he added, “And one more thing, no more mocking Harry, you hear. Unlike you, he actually helped us despite of how we treated him.”

Isaac clenched his in anger. He could not stand people who depended on others to protect them. He detested seeing those he considered weak being, as the bully liked to say, “coddled”. He also despised those who felt the need to protect the weak too.

Isaac wondered why couldn’t Antony see from his side of things. The bully was already on thin ice with his parents and it wouldn’t have hurt Antony to take the blame for this one thing. He even could have pinned it on his brother, for all Isaac cared.

If Antony wanted to side with weak people, then Isaac would no longer consider him his friend _. ‘I don’t need friends! I can still find ways to make these three idiots obey me, anyway._ ’ Isaac thought as he agreed with Antony’s demand. For now.

___________________

And so, Isaac learned how to manipulate the brothers and harry into being his lackeys. He secretly made a promise to Harry to stop bullying him, if he just obeyed him at the same time he threatened to make his life a living hell, if he disagreed to spoke of it to anyone else.

As for the twins, all he had to do was threaten each other about hurting the other twin. He used their love against each other and sneered at seeing how easy it was to make both fall in line. He could never understand why would anyone like a feeble person. Their brotherly love felt alien to him. It even gave him some extra disgust, a bit of fear, at seeing Leandro actually show anger and hostility whenever Antony was threatened.

But, in the end, the three of them were roped into Isaac’s affairs and became accessories to his wrongdoings.

“Friends don’t go around punching friends or telling them steal from people or asking them to hurt others!” Antony snarled.

Isaac frowned and bared his teeth at him, “Grew a backbone overnight? You think you can betray me like this and get away with it?”

Antony snarled back at him, as he said, “Back off, Isaac. Enough is enough.”

Isaac then eyed Leandro and Harry, “What about them? Do you think they’re brave enough too? You know what’s coming, if you dare disobey, right?” he then approached and whispered on Antony’s ear, “Think you can protect your brother from me, you hypocrite? Did you forget how you used to bully Harry too?” then Isaac used his trump card to kill any sign of rebellion from Antony, “Do what I say and no accident might befall your brother. Stairs can be slippery sometimes.”

Antony’s fur practically stood up at the threat. Isaac backed away with a satisfied grin on his face. Seeing Antony’s distressed face was a signal he had won. He wasn’t going to go that far, but he knew how powerful these words were. The bully knew which buttons to push in order to make people do his bidding.

Leandro Looked at his brother with worry. He didn’t hear what Isaac had told him, but he knew it was probably something horrible and he hated Isaac for using them like that.

 _‘Now things are going to be the way they’re supposed to.’_ Isaac thought satisfied, having a grip over Antony’s heart.

“Alright, Antony, during lunchtime go fetch Lenin for me and bring him here. Leandro, go get the nerd and you, Harry.” He gave him a creepy smile, “You better be here as well.”

___________________

Lenin was still feeling like crap by the time the bell rung for lunch break. He hadn’t met Edward so far and he just wanted someone to talk to. Maybe he could dispel his worries about Jackson using him. The two of them seemed to have gotten along the previous day.

**_‘Your so-called friends will get along with anyone. It’s a matter of time before they completely ditch you.’_ **

_‘SHUT UP!’_

The boy’s mental state was decaying rapidly. He was painfully aware of it. He wondered if he could talk to Serena before his next appointment, next week. He had to find a way to make this voice silence, by any means necessary.

He dragged his feet through the corridors, not really wanting to eat anything. But he halted when he saw Antony approaching him. “Hey, Lenin…”

“Hey…” The albino replied back, not really knowing which twin was it. But, in any case, he didn’t like the expression on his’s face. Did something bad happen. Will something bad happen? The albino lion didn’t know and he didn’t want to know.

Antony knew whatever Isaac was plotting, Lenin didn’t deserve any of it. He also loathed himself for being part of this scheme. He wanted to strangle Isaac, but he didn’t have the guys to do so and he didn’t want to go to jail because of it as well.

“Isaac is calling you on the back of the school…” He decided to at least not lie to Lenin about what was about to happen. He didn’t want to hurt the poor guy more than he was about to. He was painfully aware Lenin wouldn’t run or tell anyone about it.

Lenin’s heart sank as his hope that Isaac would have felt satisfied for the day crumbled down. He wanted to run, to scream for help. But he was sure it would only make things worse for him.

He wanted to feel angry at Antony too, but he was too tired and from the looks of it, he was being forced to do it. Still, the albino lion couldn’t forgive him for dragging him to Isaac, but he…understood why he had to do it. Fear is a powerful motivator.

The two of them walked in silence as they left school together went to the back of it. There, Lenin was surprised to see Isaac pining Edward on the ground, stopping the boy from getting up. Next to him there were Harry and, behind him, Leandro, who was holding Harry by the shoulders to prevent his friend from doing something stupid. Both looking very distressed.

Before the albino lion could stop himself, he shouted, “What are you doing? Release him, Isaac!”

Isaac looked almost incredulous at Lenin, “You think you can give me orders now?” he spat that with venom, making Lenin tremble in dread.

 _‘ **You idiot!’**_ the voice criticized him.

“I…why are you doing this?” Lenin finally asked.

“Lenin, run! Go call the principal!” Edward said, grunting in pain from the pressure Isaac was doing on his back.

“You know better than do that, right, Lenin?” Isaac said with a commanding tone that wrapped around Lenin’s fragile heart. The poor boy couldn’t bring himself to disobey Isaac.

Seeing the albino lion froze in place with a half open mouth gave the bully great satisfaction as he lectured Edward, “See. If you were more like him, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

But seeing how Antony looked at Isaac with profound disgust, made Isaac question him, “Antony, why aren’t you holding Lenin just to be sure?”

“He’s not going to run, so I should I bother with it?” he replied, hoping Isaac would leave it at that. He didn’t want to do anything else to Lenin unless he was given no other option.

Isaac wasn’t content with this defiance, but he had to agree Antony was right. _‘The freak knows his place, at least.’_ The bully thought to himself as he put his next part of the plan in action.

Edward was still struggling to leave. Leandro had called him claiming Harry wanted to talk to him and when he got there, he tried to stand up against Isaac and now his face was rubbing against the dirt. The geeky lion felt betrayed that his friend to participate in this set up, but he did ask Isaac to just let him go, which was promptly denied. The bully was clearly forcing everyone else to do his bidding.

 _‘This is all Isaac’s fault!’_ Edward thought as he cursed the bully with every swearing he knew in his head.

“Now…Edward, is it? You have one choice. If you do what I say, I’ll let you go and never touch you ever again.” Isaac begun.

 _‘This is it…I know what’s he’s going to do…’_ Lenin thought as anxiety consumed him.

“All you have to do is to give one good punch on the freak’s stomach. How about it? It’s a cheap price to get away from me, don’t you think?” he said, way too satisfied with himself.

“No, I won’t do that! Are you insane? He’s my friend!” Edward bravely proclaimed as he still struggled to get away.

Isaac twisted his arm, making him give a small scream of pain, He then snarled, “Think again, nerd. You won’t have another chance like this. Do what I tell you to do!”

“I refuse, you monster!” Edward once again defied Isaac.

Lenin was…happy? Edward wasn’t going to betray him like Michael did. But what would happen now? Isaac was visibly furious at being denied.

This wasn’t going according to his plan. ‘ _Nobody in their right mind would befriend the freak. What the hell is going on?’_ he wondered as he quickly found a way to regain control of the situation. Edward was too keen into calling the principal and tell on him, so he had to silence him. And since he liked Lenin so much…

“Antony come hold the nerd. Now!” Isaac commanded.

Antony hesitated for a second before complying. He let Edward stand up, but he held his arms on his back. When Isaac gave them his back, he managed to whisper to Edward, “Please, think before you act. That guy is crazy!”

Edward had to agree with it, but he wasn’t too keen in being friends with a person doing the bully’s whims. He looked at Harry, who was speechless at the whole ordeal. When Edward had arrived at the back of the school, Isaac kicked Harry in front of him while saying that he didn’t appreciate that his lackey was befriending the geeky lion. Before Edward could run and call someone, Isaac had grabbed him and had thrown him on the ground.

Isaac then walked towards Lenin and asked him, “What about you, freak? Would you punch him good in exchange to not be bullied anymore?”

Lenin might have considered it for a fraction of second, but every fiber in his body was aware it was a lie. Even if it weren’t, he wasn’t going to betray Edward. They were friends! Real friends! He wasn’t going to throw that away.

“No…I won’t do that!” Lenin said with a shadow of courage blossoming. But it was short lived as Isaac punched him hard on his stomach. The albino almost fell to his knees, but Isaac held Lenin by his mane, making him yelp in pain.

“Stop it, you asshole!” Edward shouted.

“Edward, please…” Lenin tried to make his friend stop provoking Isaac, to no avail.

“DO. NOT. SHOUT!” Isaac said to Edward while hitting Lenin one time for each word he said.

The albino lion was now in tears. It hurt tremendously. Isaac wasn’t holding himself back. ‘ _Why is he doing this to me? What did I do to ever deserve this?’_

‘ ** _You were born.’_** The voice replied in his mind.

“STOP IT!” Edward shouted again, making Isaac knee kick Lenin on his ribs, The pain was excruciating and the albino lion almost fainted as a result. Saliva was now falling from Lenin’s mouth as his chest hurt and he tried to catch his breath.

“Please, by all means, shout again. I promise you, I’ll be even more gentle with him.” Isaac mocked Edward.

“You bastard!” Edward insulted him once more.

And, as a result, Isaac hit Lenin once more. ‘ _Why can’t he be quiet and obey this one thing? Can’t he see every time he opens his mouth, he hurts me?_ ’

**_‘Maybe he values his pride more than you. He enjoys standing up against a bully more than actually caring about you.’_ **

Everyone else there was horrified at seeing Isaac acting in such a violent manner. But none of them could bring themselves to stop it, as terror filled them.

“For a nerd, you’re pretty stupid. I’ll repeat myself, will you call the principal or any teacher?” Isaac said as he used his knee again to kick Lenin on his stomach.

 _‘WHERE IS JACKSON? HE PROMISED…HE…’_ Lenin begged in his own mind. The jock had said, he would save him, but he was nowhere to be seen.

 _‘ **Doesn’t care about you and just want to use you to get a chick…’**_ the dark voice sounded almost sad saying this. And it felt like a knife in his heart.

“Fine! You win! I won’t tell anyone! Just stop hurting him…please!” Edward finally conceded. He could not believe Isaac would go to such lengths to assert his dominance. He now understood why he was feared by everyone.

Isaac considered hitting Lenin one more time to make his point across, but he pondered it might be overdoing it. He didn’t want Lenin to end up in a hospital. Even if the albino lion lied and said he did it himself, nobody would believe it and he was aware none of his goons would take such fall for him, if the police gets involved. It would be for the best to not push his luck.

“Good for you! Now, remember what just happened here and fall in line, if you don’t want this to repeat, that is.” Isaac said, with a terrifying grin, before letting Lenin go, who slumped on the ground, wringing in agony.

With a satisfied smirk Isaac left the area and went back into the school as if nothing had happened.

As soon as Isaac left their line of sight, Antony let go of Edward, who rushed towards the albino lion, “Lenin! Are you alright?”

‘Alright? ALRIGHT? I’m like this **because of you!** ’

As Edward reached him to help his friend stand up, Lenin shouted, together with the voice, “ **Get away from me!”**

“Lenin…” Edward said, now clearly frightened by the tone of his voice. The albino lion was in a unspeakable amount of pain, both physical and mental.

 **“Why couldn’t you just have agreed to not talk to the principal? Why? I begged you so many times to not disobey him! Why did you do this to me?”** The voice said in unison with Lenin, who no longer cared who was in charge of his body. He fully agreed with what was being said, in any case.

“I…” Edward started, but he wasn’t able to continue his train of thought. He didn’t know Isaac could be this cruel. He thought he could stand up to bullies by himself, but now this…monster was hurting people Edward cared about just to make him obey. The geeky lion’s attempt to not feel powerless ended up backfiring badly.

Antony, Leandro and Harry just stood there motionless. They truly felt sorry for what it just happened. They felt ashamed for playing right into Isaac’s demented machinations.

Leandro wanted to say he was sorry and beg forgiveness, but he felt like he deserved none. This feeling was also shared by his brother and Harry.

Lenin glared venomously at them all, Edward included, as he gathered his strength to stand up again.

Edward tried to reach out for him, but the Lenin spat alongside the voice, “ **Don’t touch me!”**

After that, he ran to not let them see the tears streaming down his cheeks.

___________________

Lenin stormed into his house, not caring to close the door after he was inside. He was a mess. His body trembled non-stop as tears kept streaming from his eyes. He felt betrayed by everyone. He trusted them and yet they hurt him.

Jackson wanted to use him to get a girl and Edward was would rather be self-righteous than actually listen to reason and shut up for two seconds. As a result, Lenin was violently beaten up. His body was agonizing from the beating, it felt like a miracle he could arrive home. Lenin had to wonder if he had a broken rib or something, given how much his chest was aching.

His mother was at work, so he was all alone. He didn’t want to face her anyway. He wanted to curl up in his room and never leave.

As he wept, he tried to move towards the staircase and go to his room, but his body was getting weaker and weaker. He had to move towards the kitchen table and support himself there, because he feared collapsing at any moment.

He was a wreck. The pain was mind-numbing and he just wanted it to stop.

**_‘Go to the drawer at the kitchen and get your medicine.’_ **

_‘Wha…How can anti-depressants help now?’_

**_‘They’ll help you. Isn’t want Serena always told you. You need them.’_ **

_‘But you said, they were worthless!’_ Lenin protested as he dragged his feet towards the kitchen counter.

**_‘I was wrong. You do need them. The problem is that they are far too ineffective. You need a bigger dosage for them to help you. They’ll make you happy. Isn’t it the whole point of an anti-depressant?’_ **

Lenin just listened to what the voice said. It had warned him about his so-called friends. If he had listened to it before, he wouldn’t be in this condition now.

**_‘You’ll be happy. You won’t need your mother, Serena, Edward or Jackson. Just take multiple pills and let them remove all pain from you.’_ **

_‘But If these pills change my behavior, then I won’t be myself anymore!’_

**_‘Is the current you worth protecting? Look at you. You’re miserable, you’re suffering. You can’t pay attention to classes, you don’t even want to eat properly. The current you is worthless…’_** it said with an almost gentle tone, which terrified the boy, mostly because he agreed with everything it told him.

Lenin stared at the box for a while. He was sobbing uncontrollably at that point. He didn’t want to do this, but the voice was right. To the boy, this was the only way to make the pain go away. He ripped it open and picked one of the pills and swallowed it, not caring to use water to make it easier.

**_‘You’ll need more than that to make the pain go away. Serena said she could give you more anyway.’_ **

Lenin picked another pill and swallowed it. He wasn’t feeling any better.

**_‘She gave you pill with a weak dosage. You need more.’_ **

The albino lion swallowed another.

**_‘the pain will go away soon.’_ **

The boy had hiccups by now, as he fought to clean up his tears, which wouldn’t stop. He put one more into his mouth.

**_‘Another.’_ **

**_‘Another.’_ **

**_‘Another.’_ **

Lenin ended up just swallowing every single pill he had left in the box. He didn’t even care to count how many he took. He just let himself collapsed on the ground with his back leaning against the kitchen counter, while still holding the box of his medicine. He curled up in fetal position and hoped the anti-depressants would take the pain away.

End of chapter 9


	10. The Happy House

“Lenin? Wake up!”

The albino lion stirred and opened his eyes to see Edward crouching in front of him. He was startled by it. He didn’t think he would be falling asleep on his kitchen and be found out like this, especially by Edward. He stood up and demanded, “What are you doing here?”

“I…was worried, you know…and…I’m sorry…I should have listened to you…” Edward said, avoiding eye contact, with Lenin.

The albino lion was feeling much better, so he figured the beating he got might not have been as intense as he imagined at first. He was still a little mad at Edward for opposing Isaac and getting him hurt because of it, but that was the geeky lion’s first real encounter with the bully. Besides, Edward didn’t betray him.

“I think I overreacted as well…I’m sorry too…” He muttered to his friend. He made a mental note to lecture Edward thoroughly about what to do when Isaac starts to bully him to prevent a repeat of what had happened that day. Lenin feared the next beating might be worse.

Edward looked straight to Lenin and smiled. “Glad to see you’re safe. Everyone is here and they are worried about you.”

Lenin froze for a second, “Everyone?”

Then from the other side of the wall, his mother, Jackson, Harry, Leandro and Antony showed up. The albino lion didn’t know what to do or say about it. He didn’t realize nearly everyone he knew invited themselves to his house. However, he was more worried about what his mother would say about all of it. She would want to know why a bunch of people suddenly wanted to see him. He looked at his mother and said, “Mom, I can explain…”

But before he could start, the lioness approached her son and gave him a warm hug. It was something he hadn’t felt in many years. The gentle embrace made him feel comfortable, safe and it almost made him forget what was going on.

“I already know everything, sunshine. They’ve told me everything. It must have been too painful to endure it all alone. I’m sorry for not being there for you. Can you forgive me?”

Sunshine was an old nickname she used to call him when his mane had started to grow. It had been an attempt on her part to try to reconnect with her son, which, unfortunately was short lived because their problems kept piling up and it drove another wedge between them. But this nickname had been the reason why Lenin always combed his mane resembling a Sun.

Lenin was deeply moved by this. Not only his mother wasn’t angry, but also offered him support and love. This was something he always longed for. He hugged her tightly back as a few tears fell from his cheeks, “I’m the one who’s sorry. I should have been a better son.”

She patted his head and ruffled his mane a little. The caring touch brought him so much joy, he wanted it to last forever, “You’ve never been a bad son. I love you, Lenin.”

“I love you too, mom.” He replied back, feeling the best he had ever been since…ever.

He then realized the others were staring at him without saying a word. He then softly broke the hug with his mother as he asked them, “Why did you guys come here? What happened to…” He stopped himself as he eyed his mother.

“I know about Isaac, sunshine.” She said with a warm smile. Lenin felt a bit sheepish as being called like that in front of others, but they didn’t seem to care, thankfully.

“Well,” Jackson begun as he raised his right fist and slammed it against against his left palm, “let’s just say I taught him a lesson he won’t soon forget.” He finished with a satisfying grin.

Lenin wasn’t so sure if that was a great idea. On one hand he was happy to know the bully got a taste of his own medicine, but he was worried things might escalate even more. If possible, he always preferred things to be solved without the need for violence.

“But how did you…” Lenin begun only to be cut off by Edward.

“I told him about it and he punished Isaac for it.”

Then Harry chimed in, “Meanwhile, Leandro, Antony and I went to talk to the principal and told him everything.”

Lenin felt like his heart skipped a beat for a second, but Antony picked up from there, “We got our fair punishments because we were part of Isaac’s schemes, but the principal was furious with Isaac and expelled him!”

Leandro then finished, “The principal then called Isaac’s parents and they are now moving away from town! They are packing as we speak!”

Lenin didn’t know what to say. ‘ _So, I won’t be bullied anymore?’_ he wondered. But he knew some people would still say nasty things about him, but not having Isaac around anymore was a huge victory for the boy.

However, he realized something and asked Jackson, “But won’t you get in trouble for beating Isaac?”

The athlete took a few seconds to reply to the question, “Nah. The principal didn’t catch me when I punished Isaac. Besides, that stupid bully didn’t tell the principal anything for some reason. Maybe he felt like he deserved it.”

Lenin pondered that for a little while. He wasn’t so sure Isaac would turn a new leaf so easily. But, in any case, he was leaving town, so he didn’t have to fear him anymore.

He suddenly felt his mother’s hand over his right shoulder and she said, “You’ll be happy from now on, son! So, please, forget all about your troubles and focus on now.”

He looked at her and felt the warmth he missed so much but before he could say anything, he suddenly heard something akin to whispers.

_“Lenin!”_

_“Lenin!”_

Lenin then turned around and asked his friends, “Yes?”

The others just looked at Lenin in a quiet manner, with smiles on their faces. The albino lion felt it was rather odd, but pushed it to the back of his mind. They then said that they hadn’t uttered a word. So, Lenin decided to ignore it.

Leandro then proclaim, “Oh, that’s right. We almost forgot! We brought you a cake!”

Antony continued, “Your mother told us you liked strawberry cake, so we prepared one for you! I’ll go pick it up.” He them walked over to the other side of the wall, as if he were going to the living room.

To tell the truth, Lenin couldn’t tell which twin was which, but he felt like it would be rude to ask at that moment. ‘ _But when did mom talk to them? Did they get in contact beforehand? Was that why she got out early today? Why even put a cake over there?’_ he conjectured, but decided to just ignore it all. _‘Maybe it would be too awkward to just put it here while I was sleeping, I guess.’_

After a few seconds, Antony returned holding a beautiful looking cake. The albino lion felt a strange pain on his chest and stomach, but it was short-lived as it gave place to a sensation of hunger, since the cake was mouthwatering.

 _‘I did skip lunch, so I guess this is the reason.’_ He concluded and dismissed what he had just felt.

Antony placed the cake on the kitchen’s table, while Lenin’s mom picked plates and utensils for everyone. The lioness then handed a knife to Leandro, who started to cut the cake in slices and serve everyone, who were all seated around the table.

 _‘Did we always have this many chairs?’_ He thought for a second before raising his shoulders, dismissing it.

Lenin looked at the cake and it was quite appetizing. He gave it a bite and he loved it. It tasted just the same as a cake he had had a couple of years ago in his birthday. He slowly ate it, savoring it, while looking around. Everyone was chatting, telling jokes he had already heard and the overall mood in the room was really pleasant.

 _‘So, this is what a birthday party is like’_ , he thought with a mixture of happiness and sadness because that was the first time he was having such a good time.

 _“LENIN, PLEASE, DON’T…”_ another strange voice echoed through the house, making the albino lion look around confused, as a stronger pain took over him, but, as the previous one, it was short lived.

Edward, who was sitting by his left, placed a hand over Lenin’s shoulder and asked, “Are you alright? Is something wrong?”

“No, no. I’m okay. I guess I’m a…bit sore from earlier.” Lenin tried to joke about it with a forced smile, but everyone else laughed with it, including his own mother. He didn’t like making such forced comment about himself and it was unnerving how everyone thought it was funny.

 _‘I guess I can’t blame them for it. I’m the one downplaying the whole thing…But Isaac is gone! I shouldn’t have to fear him anymore…But what if he comes back? No, he probably won’t…I hope.’_ He mused in his mind. At that time, Lenin thought of another strange happening, the dark voice that was always putting him down was oddly quiet.

 _‘Is that thing…gone? Am I cured of it?’_ He thought, hoping it would be the case. After all, the dark voice like to put him down everytime he was starting to feel good about something.

As they all chatted about trivial things, Lenin heard another voice coming from behind him, “Hello, Lenin.”

The albino lion jumped from his chair as he turned around and saw Isaac standing right behind him. “Why are you here?” Lenin demanded, feeling frightened beyond words.

The albino lion suddenly felt another sharp pain in his body. It was short lived, but it enough for him to almost lose his balance, but he was stabilized by Edward, who stood up next to him. The geeky lion said absolutely nothing as he did so.

Meanwhile, Jackson stood up and walked towards Isaac, “Well,” the jock begun with a grin as he patted Isaac on the shoulder, “After what he did to you, I looked for him. He then said he was really sorry and wanted to talk with you.”

“I…don’t believe you! You just want to hurt me again!” Lenin said, feeling hurt and betrayed by all of this.

“It’s okay, sunshine, we all agreed to it and we are all here to protect you just in case. You are safe. Nothing can harm you in hour own house. This is your home, your sanctuary. Listen to him, okay? You don’t have to fear him anymore.” His mother said with a gentle tone.

‘ _She agreed to this? Why? Why do I have to listen to anything he has to say. He’ll probably just mock me!_ ’ Lenin worried in his mind as he looked at Isaac.

Jackson than punched Isaac straight on his stomach, almost making the bully fall on his knees. Lenin was startled by this as the athlete answered, “I know you’re scared, Lenin, but it’s okay. We’re here to protect you from all danger.”

“And you don’t have to feel sorry for me, I deserved this one.” Isaac quickly said, recomposing himself.

Lenin blinked a couple of times, scared and yet curious about what’s going on. If this were a plot to hurt him, they would have already done so, “Fine! Just be quicky about it!” The albino lion finally conceded crossing his arms around his body as his he were trying to hug himself to protect him from further harm.

Isaac nodded at being given permission, “I’m here to apologize for everything. I’ve hurt you so many times I couldn’t possibly count. I know I made you feel horrible about yourself and even ruined your chances of being happy multiple times.”

He gave a deep sigh before continuing, “My parents…they are cruel to me, you see. They always yell and beat me on a daily basis. In the end, I end up lashing out on others at school because I wanted everyone to feel the same pain I did…If I had been more mature, I wouldn’t have acted out like a vile creature towards everyone. I was desperate for a friend, but I never knew how to approach others. Control through violence is all I knew…”

Then after another brief pause, Isaac extended his right hand towards Lenin, “I’m soon leaving town and I at least wanted to leave in good terms with you. I don’t want to have my shadow lingering in your mind any further. Let’s end all of this. I know this may be too late, but, please…forgive me for all I did.”

Lenin looked at the hand and thought deeply about all of this. He uncrossed his arms and he raised his hand a bit before putting it back down. He looked straight to the bully and said, “No…”

“No?” Isaac asked in a confused manner.

“No!” Lenin said firmly. “You can’t just blame all you’ve done to me as you being hurt. Do you know how many people you’ve bullied? Should they become bullies just because they’re in pain? Should I become a bully just because of what you’ve done to me? No!”

The albino then stopped for a little while. Isaac’s entire backstory was exactly as what Lenin always imagined it to be, but he still had to tell him what was in his mind, “I’m sorry your parents hurt you, but it’s not an excuse. What you’ve done...What you’ve made me go through. No half-baked apology could ever fix any of that! I do **NOT** forgive you!”

The albino lion braced himself for impact, however Isaac was immobile. His expression was blank. No anger, no snide comments were made. Nothing. Lenin then looked around and everyone else had the exact same neutral expression. This whole thing was frighting him.

 **“My, my…Why couldn’t you just play along and be happy?”** said the cursed voice in a clearer sound.

Lenin almost jumped when he saw another lion appearing from behind Isaac. Jackson even walked away to make space for him. What alarmed Lenin the most was that this new lion was exactly like him. It was almost like looking at a mirror.

This copy put his hand over Isaac’s shoulder and leaned on his as if the bully was a mere furniture. **“This should be your greatest fantasy. You’ve always imagined how Isaac must be this tortured soul that only cause you harm because he was hurt as well. I thought that you would enjoy see all your dreams come true and yet…”** he then let go of Isaac and got really close to Lenin’s face as he added, **“you spit on my favor to you.”**

This copy of Lenin continued to circle around them for a few moments before Lenin gathered enough courage to ask, “Who are you? Are you some ghost or demon? Leave my body!”

The copy chuckled darkly as he said, **“Really? You don’t even recognize yourself?”**

“What?” said the boy, utterly bewildered.

The copy stopped and sighed in an exaggerated manner, “ **I am you, you moron! The only reason why I’m speaking to you as if I were a different person is because your petty little brain can’t handle it.”**

Lenin shook his head, “This is impossible! You can’t be me! You’re the one who fill my head with those nasty thoughts.”

The copy shrugged as he replied, “ **Don’t pretend like you’re innocent. Like you’re some saint. All these thoughts are yours and yours alone.”**

Lenin then growled as he exclaimed, “Stop lying to me!”

 **“You’re the one lying to yourself…But I suppose you would value her word above my own.”** When the doppelganger finished saying that, he pointed at the staircase.

Lenin could hear the footsteps of someone coming down and it was Serena. “Hello, Lenin, how are you today?” she asked with the usual smile, completely unfazed by the presence of two ‘Lenins’.

 **“Now, Serena, care to explain to this moron what’s going on? Explain everything like you would explain to a small child.”** the copy commanded.

It was surreal seeing Serena nodding as if she were a puppet under his control, “You see, Lenin, you’ve always had nasty little thoughts about yourself and others. But you never really wanted accept you were capable of such things. It got to a point where you started to simply talk to yourself, while you pretended your own replies weren’t yours. Every time you lashed out, you tried to pin the blame for it in some other entity, to feel better about yourself.”

“NO! This isn’t true. I…I…I’m not crazy!” Lenin shouted.

 _“Quick, pass me the…”_ Lenin heard another whisper. He looked around once more and he couldn’t recognize the voice or who was saying that. Nobody else seemed to have heard it.

The psychiatric cocked her head to the side as she said, with an eerie smile, “You aren’t crazy, my boy. You’re just neck deep in denial.”

“No! I’m not in denial about anything! How do I make him stop?” Lenin swiftly asked, not wanting to think about any it.

However, Serena didn’t reply. She just stared at him like a soulless doll, sending shivers down his spine.

 **“She cannot answer something you do not know.”** The doppelganger explained calmly.

“But...then…what she just said…”

 **“You already knew to be truth.”** the copy finished saying for him.

“No!” Lenin denied yet again, making the copy sigh in annoyance.

 **“You know…I don’t want to be you as well. I always hated this appearance of mine. This disgusting colorless fur that brought so much shame and misery to my family.”** Every word this copy said felt like a dagger on Lenin’s heart. As much as he hated to admit it…he was right…they were same people.

After that, the doppelganger gave him a grin as he proclaimed, **“I think I can fix this, however.”**

Then, the doppelganger’s fur color started to change. His mane became red, while his body was a mixture of brown and yellow. “ **Much better!”**

Lenin watched the transformation with both dread and a tinge of envy. Then the copy continued, “ **I think I also need a new name, since calling me Lenin as well would be rather confusing for your feeble brain. How about…something German? Ich and zog…Iczog has a nice ring to it, what do you think?”**

“Why?”

 **“Why what?”** Iczog replied with a provocative smile.

“Why German?” Lenin clarified, not bothering to try protest the insult. It did feel easier for him to continue pretending that this person in front of him was another individual. But, deep down, Lenin knew they were one and the same.

Iczog laughed as he explained, “ **Because, stupid boy, it’s to rub on your face how little you actually know about the Language. Tell me how long did you study German while you daydreamed about visiting it?”**

Lenin opened his mouth to answer, but since he couldn’t produce a sound, given his own shame on this matter, Iczog answered for him, “ **Three months! And after you deciding it was too hard for you to learn, you jumped to French. And how much time did you dedicate yourself to French? One month! You even begged your mother to buy books for you, which are now gathering dust in a drawer!”**

Lenin started to cry. He was embarrassed for doing so. He had tried to teach himself, watch online classes about it, but he lost all motivation in his first roadblocks. He loathed himself for building up his own expectations only to fail himself.

All he could think about, at the time, was how much he loathed his own life and this got in the way of pursuing something he initially wanted. And the failure to do anything on his own only added to the pile of self-hatred.

He just closed his eyes and wished to awake and put an end to this nightmare.

“This is a nightmare…” Lenin said quickly looking around and what he saw frightened him. He saw his mother and everyone else with big smiles on their faces, completely immobile, as if they were mere mannequins.

He tried to pinch himself awake, but it was to no avail.

 **“You aren’t merely asleep, you idiot!”** The doppelganger finally said as he rolled his eyes.

“Of course, I am sleeping! All of this…” Lenin moved his arms to point the creepy simulacrum of the people he knew, “Can’t possibly be real!”

Iczog raised a finger as he explained, “ **The only thing you got right was that none of this is the real world. But does it matter? This place can grant all of your wishes. Would you like to see Isaac grovel by your feet while begging forgiveness?”**

As if on cue, Isaac walked towards Lenin, who nearly jumped at the bully approaching him, but then Isaac’s face became a crying one as he fell on his knees and started saying, “I’m sorry, Lenin! I’m sorry for everything! Please forgive me!”

Then the bully approached his face towards Lenin’s feet as if to kiss them, but the albino lion quickly stepped back to not allow such thing, “Stop it!” he demanded.

However, Isaac said as tears streamed from his eyes as he begged, “Please, I know what I did was wrong…I know…hit me! Hit me as hard as you want. Punish me!”

Lenin felt a profound disgust, “Stop this! This is stupid!”

 **“Why? Didn’t you always desire this? Or is it because this isn’t the real Isaac? Would you accept to hurt the real one if he made the same offer?”** Iczog questioned Lenin as he tapped his own chin.

“What is yours deal?” Lenin asked angrily. Lenin hated Isaac, but he never saw himself wanting to hurt him either.

 **“Why are you so difficult? Aren’t you done pretending you’re better than others?”** Lenin’s doppelganger asked indignantly.

Iczog called forth Jackson’s copy with a hand gesture as he started, **“See this guy? He has it all, doesn’t he? Athletic, popular, good grades, everything you desired at some point. You were extremely jealous of him at one point.”**

“I…I never…” Lenin tried to defend himself, but he really couldn’t.

**“He’s even kinder than you expected him to be. He wanted to be your friend. To protect you out of pity, but what do you do? You curse and smear him for just asking a minor favor to you! How do you think he’ll react once he knows how much you loathed him for asking something so minor from you?”**

“He only tried to help me because he wanted to hook up with a girl.”

**“Wrong! He learned you wanted to participate in the band AFTER he made that promise and started to help you. Doing such favor for him was no big deal and you know it.”**

Lenin opened his mouth, but then closed it. He was right again. He was now thinking much clearer now. He had been angry at Jackson for no reason. He felt deep shame as he realized how wrong he had been.

The albino lion suddenly felt a much greater pain wash over his whole body. He felt breathless for a second. The lighting in his house flickered as if the Sun itself went out for a few seconds.

“What is going on …” Lenin begun, only to be silenced by his twisted reflection.

**“It’s nothing important. Please focus on the subject at hand here. Or you can’t pay attention to a conversation for more than five minutes?”**

Lenin didn’t appreciate the jab as he also stated, “Jackson also said, he would help me out. That he wouldn’t let Isaac hurt me anymore that…”

Iczog sighed loudly as he stopped Lenin yet again, **“Are you really blaming him for not being omnipresent? Really? Also, who was it that refused to tell him who was bullying you?”**

“You said that Isaac would hurt him if I told him!” Lenin desperately tried to reason.

**“Did you forget we’re the same person? You’re just making excuses for your own decisions. Besides, you didn’t want to tell him Isaac was hurting you at the same time you wanted Jackson to protect you from him? Contradictory much, don’t you agree?”**

“I’m not you!” Lenin shouted back. Lenin realized how unfair he was being with Jackson. He hated himself for it. But he still didn’t want to admit it to this creature in front of him.

 **“You can lie to yourself until you start believing in it, but it still won’t change reality.”** Iczog replied raising his shoulders as if not really caring for Lenin’s opinion on the matter.

The albino lion hated himself even more. At the time, Lenin jumped to conclusions about Jackson, but now he realized how wrong he was to unfairly blame Jackson for what happened to him.

As if sensing Lenin’s moment of weakness, Iczog made Jackson step back and brought forth Edward. It creeped Lenin out seeing everyone else act like marionettes at Iczog’s command.

**“Now, this fellow is an interesting one, don’t you agree. He was a bully victim as well, but, unlike you, he refused to allow himself be treated like a doormat. He wasn’t going to let Isaac walk over him, however, not only you felt jealous of his courage, you wanted him to be a coward as well.”**

Lenin clenched his fists, “I didn’t want him to get hurt! You know damn well that Isaac does not tolerate people talking back to him. Even if I weren’t there, Edward would still suffer a lot by confronting Isaac!”

Surprisingly, Iczog remained quiet for some time. “ **That much is true…”** he admitted with a begrudgingly tone. “ **However, you still blamed him for the pain Isaac caused you. You hated him for not complying fast enough. You should have betrayed him first!”**

“NO!” Lenin shouted. “I would never do such a thing to him. It’s wrong! He was kind to me. He’s my friend. Was my friend…” he finished with a sad tone. After how Lenin treated Edward before running back to his home, he was certain the geeky lion wanted nothing more to do with him.

 **“Being brave won’t stop you from feeling pain, you know.”** Iczog taunted him once more.

“Why are you so confusing? Are you trying to lecture me or are you trying to turn me into a monster?”

Iczog gave a satisfying grin as he said, “ **But you already are a monster. Have you never seen yourself in a mirror?”**

Lenin gritted his teeth, “Why are you dodging the question?”

Iczog jeered at him, **“Isn’t dodging the best thing you do?”**

The albino lion knew it was futile to keep going on with this, but Iczog still wouldn’t let Lenin have a moment of peace, he dismissed Edward and called forth Harry, Antony and Leandro.

**“These three are pretty interesting cases. They obey Isaac, but they still do horrible things for him…So, why did you do it Lenin?”**

The albino lion raised an eyebrow at that, “Do what?”

 **“Why do you want to forgive them? Even now. Even after they helped Isaac beating you senselessly, you still want to be their friend.”** He asked with an almost sad tone in his voice.

Lenin looked away, “I don’t know…Maybe it’s because I know how terrifying Isaac can be and he had hurt them before just for fun. They can be kind when he’s not around. They don’t do it out of malice.”

 **“Then why haven’t you forgiven Michael then? I know very well you still resent him.”** Iczog gave him a frightening intense stare.

The albino lion wasn’t ready to respond that. He didn’t know why he still hated Michael even after he tried to apologize to him. ‘ _Was it because he was my first friend?’_

He instinctively crossed his arms around his body and suddenly felt really cold. The lighting in his house got much darker all of a sudden. A few lamps automatically turned on as a result.

The moment the sunlight disappeared, everyone but Lenin and Iczog were gone as if they were never there. The lamps weren’t providing much light to begin with.

 _“We are losing…get the…”_ Lenin heard another faint whisper.

“What is going on, Iczog? Why are you doing this?” Lenin asked as he looked around. The entire scenery was scarying him more than he wanted to admit.

 **“I didn’t do anything…I’m…You’re…dying, that’s what’s happening…”** Iczog stated, while looking solemn, as if he were in peace with this. Almost like he longed for it.

“What? Why do you mean I’m dying? This is impossible!” Lenin objected.

 **“Do you remember what you were holding before you woke up just now?”** Iczog said as he pointed to the albino’s right hand.

Lenin stared at his hand, opening and closing it a couple of times as he tried to recall the prior events. Suddenly a box of anti-depressants flickered into existence on his hand, only to disappear shortly afterwards.

The albino lion was in shock as he realized what was going on, “I’m…overdosing…”

Iczog smiled triumphally as he clapped his hands, **“Bravo! You finally realized what’s going on!”**

“Lenin gritted his teeth, “You did this to me! I didn’t want to die! You…”

Iczog rapidly raised his palm to stop Lenin, “ **You convinced yourself to swallow so many pills. This is why you’re here to begin with. Do not dare dodge the blame for this one. All I did was to provide you a happy life before it all ended. But you were quite ungrateful for it.”**

“None of this is real! Why should I be grateful for a lie?” Lenin nearly shouted as it hit him like a truck. Those happy moments with his friends, a loving and caring mother…None of that really happened. He was alone. Always were alone.

 **“At least you finally understood it…You don’t have any friends and even if Edward and Jackson were your friends at some point, after today, they don’t want anything to do with you anymore.”** He said with a calming and soothing tone as he slowly walked towards Lenin, who was trembling at the thought of being completely alone.

 **“I…still have some power left…I can still give you some comfort while we wait for our inevitable end. Who do you want to see the most? Stay here and embrace it. I can even make you look like me. You can have a normal life in the end.”** Iczog offered him.

The look on his face made it so hard to refuse. Lenin looked at his dark reflection. His offer was more tempting than he ever wanted to admit it. But something he said caught his attention, “Stay?”

Lenin then looked at the door of his house, but Iczog grabbed his left arm, “ **If you leave, there isn’t any guarantee you’ll survive. All it’ll do is to end this place and any chance you still have of being happy.”**

“But if I stay, I’ll die, right?” Lenin angrily turned back to him trying to yank his arm away.

 **“It’s not like your life is any better. Do you want to return to what exactly?”** Iczog said as he tried to keep holding on Lenin, but the albino lion managed to get away from him.

“But at least I would still be alive. I…can still find a way to be happy.”

Iczog raised his arms in exasperated manner, “ **Why do you keep lying to yourself? I’m you! You WANT this! A peaceful and happy death is much better than a life of suffering.”**

“But I can still try!” Lenin proclaimed, result as he turned and dashed towards the door, but before he reached it, he heard a voice it had been a long time since he last heard it.

“Lenin, how are you, son?”

The albino lion stopped on his tracks and slowly turned to see both of his parents there. His father was exactly like how he remembered him. “You’re not real…You’re just some stupid memory!” Lenin said, despite the fact he found himself walking back towards him.

His father smiled gently at him, while Lenin’s mother leaned on him. Lenin’s father then reached out with open arms and grabbed Lenin, but he did so in soft manner. Lenin’s shock was twofold. Not only his father easily lifted him from the floor, Lenin’s body changed back to a six-year-old boy.

“Wha…” Lenin begun saying but he was silenced by his father’s embrace.

“I’m here now, Lenin. We can be a family again.”

Lenin wanted to lash out on him. He wanted to scream. But he did none of that. He buried his head on his chest as he sobbed, “Why did you leave us?”

“I was stupid back them…I should have stayed. You suffered a lot because of me.”

He rocked the boy on his arms. His father had never hugged him or treated him kindly like this before leaving them. It was something the albino longed for as a child, but never obtained it. “You’re…not real…” Lenin finally said.

His father then said, “No, I’m not…but it doesn’t matter. I’m here now.”

The lioness then joined them in the hug as she said, “Everything is alright now. We can all be together. We can finally be a normal family. Just the three of us.”

Lenin wanted this more than anything else. He felt loved, cared for. But he knew it was all fake. It was just his wishful thinking in action. But the fact he felt his own strength leaving him when he tried to get away, his biggest shame. It wasn’t like he couldn’t break free, it was just that he didn’t want to.

He wanted to embrace this fantasy, this fairy tale.

“We love you, Lenin.” Both of them told him.

He embraced them tighter. The lights in the house flickered a couple of times as the house cold a bit colder. It was strange how the warmth of his parents wasn’t dispelling the cold creeping in. He should feel safe, but something, back in the back of his mind screamed at him to get away.

That’s how the boy realized none of this was worth it. The warmth, the love, all of it were lies. He was just fooling himself. He could never have a family that loved him. Still, he wanted to be alive. To find happiness for himself. He didn’t want to give up like this.

He finally found courage to break free from them. He pushed his parents away and when he did, his bother returned back to normal. He didn’t have time to think about it as he ran back to the door, when he touched the handle, his father said, “If you leave, you’ll be returning to a world where neither of us care about you and you’ll be nothing but a burden to your mother.”

The lamps at the house started to flicker non-stop as Lenin tightened his grip against the door handle.

“Please, son, come back to us. Let us be a happy family, even if it’s for a little while. I love you.”

Tears streamed from his eyes as Lenin admitted the ugly truth to himself, “No, dad, you never loved me.”

He then opened the door and he was engulfed by a bright light.

End of chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to thank Tsuji for helping me on how to add Iczog's name into the story. He explained to me "Ich" in German means "I" and "Zog" means "to pull". It fit quite well in this story's theme.


	11. Realization

Edward was in shambles, not knowing what he should do or even say. His friend got hurt badly because of him and he felt powerless to stop it. Leandro and Antony looked at each other, also unsure of what they should do.

Harry was the first one to approach Edward, “Do you understand now why everyone is scared shitless of Isaac?”

Edward looked at his friend, still feeling dejected, “So, that’s why you guys do as he says…”

The geeky lion wanted to be angry at them all for taking part in it, but even he was now scared. His resolution to fight against any bully that tried to step on him fell apart in a single moment.

Harry wanted to be upfront with his friend, so he said, “This is shit, I know…I…also understand if you don’t want to speak with me anymore. Very few people in school actually want to get involved with us because of Isaac.”

The chubby lion didn’t want to lose this friendship, even after Isaac harmed him for what happened at the cafeteria yesterday. But he felt like this was for the best. If Edward got away from everyone and kept his head low, he might not become a regular target. But given how the geeky lion didn’t want to end his friendship with Lenin, Harry doubted Isaac would leave things be.

“No…I mean…I know it’s all because of that monster. I just…don’t know what to do!” Edward replied clenching his fists and closing his eyes tightly. He felt conflicted. On one side, he did want to blame all of them for letting this happen, on the other he had just tasted the fear Isaac instilled in everyone’s hearts and he couldn’t fault them for fearing for their safety.

Harry smiled weakly. He wished he could do something to help him, but there was nothing he could do without putting himself into harm’s way. ‘ _I’m such a coward…’_ Harry thought bitterly.

Leandro then walked towards the two and suggested, “I think you should go talk to Lenin. He’s your friend, isn’t he? I don’t think he meant what he said about you.”

Edward glared at him and said, “Why don’t you go talk to him as well? He deserves an apology!”

Leandro visibly flinched at that, “We already talked to him a couple of days ago. But, right now, I doubt he wants to see our faces. He doesn’t deserve any of this madness.”

Edward just kept glaring at them, still upset, while thinking about what he was just told. He hoped he could fix his friendship with Lenin, but he wasn’t sure how.

Antony looked at the entire situation and feeling a deep hatred inside of him. Isaac was going too far. He was like an infection that was festering and was ruining everything around him. So many times, he cogitated punching the lights out of him, but he felt constricted every time he was threatened. Try as he might, he couldn’t think of a solution to this problem.

There was a limit to which they could maintain the status quo. Isaac’s actions are bound to cause irreparable damage at some point and he feared being dragged down with Isaac. _‘How am I suppose to handle a sociopath like him?_ ’ Antony thought now on the lookout in case the bully decided to return.

Edward hoped Lenin had gone back to the school and went straight to the nurse’s office. He needed to have his body checked. But, knowing the albino lion, he probably didn’t go there to avoid explaining how he got hurt in the first place.

 _‘I hope I’m not too late.’_ Edward thought before going back the school, after his friend.

As soon as he left, Harry turned to the twins and said, “Guys, I think we should just go talk to the principal about Isaac.”

The two nearly jumped at the suggestion. “Are you crazy? Besides, he had been already called by the principal this week for forcing us to steal money, yet here he is. What do you expect the principal to do? Expel him? He would go even crazier and you could die!” Antony said, pointing his finger at Harry.

“So, we just do nothing as usual? What if Isaac ends up getting someone killed even without anyone snitching on him? What then? Will you be able to sleep at night without doing anything about it?” Harry replied, frowning deeply as he walked towards his friend.

“Why are you pinning the blame of what Isaac does on me?” Antony growled in anger.

Leandro quickly stood between the two to de-escalate the situation, raising his hands to prevent the two from getting any closer to one another, “Both of you stop!” He turned to his brother, “Harry is right that we need to do something. Isaac is making us do even more atrocious things each day. At this rate, hell drag us down with him, if we don’t do anything!”

Then he turned to Harry, “But we can’t just blindly do anything, without a proper plan. Things could backfire horribly to not just us, but everyone we know and care about. How about we stop and think before hastily do anything?”

He then turned his head back and forth between his brother and Harry, “Are we agreed?”

Antony crossed his arms as he said, “I’m not doing anything if it means he’ll target us, you know.”

Leandro sighed, “I know, but there must be something we still haven’t considered that could prevent Isaac from lashing out on us!”

Harry was aware of how the twins were protective of one another. He couldn’t fault them, especially Antony, for not wanting to take the risk, after all, he was also scared of the consequences. The chubby lion simply wanted this whole mess to end, ‘ _But what can we do?’_ he thought for a little while until he remembered something.

“Guys, I think I might have an idea.” Harry said, hoping his plan could work.

___________________

Jackson was organizing his locker before going to lunch when he saw Edward storming into the entrance hall of the school. The geeky lion had a troubled expression on his face as he was looking around quickly as if looking for something or someone.

Edward saw the jock as well and quickly went in his direction. While the two weren’t exactly friends, they found out they had quite a lot in common and the athlete might be able to help him out.

“Jackson, have you seen Lenin passing by here?” Edward asked still looking around.

The jock closed his locker and then asked, getting worried at the question, “No. Did something happen?”

Edward opened his mouth and immediately shut it. He was scared. ‘ _What if I make things worse again? I can’t do this to Lenin!’_

“No…I just need to talk to him, that’s all. Thanks anyway. I’ll go look for him. He should have passed here before you.” He replied as he tried to get past Jackson, who held Edward by the arm, not letting him go.

“I’ve been here for a little while. I didn’t see Lenin get past here. What were you guys doing outside of school anyway? Were you having lunch there?”

“I…uh…” Edward had never been good with making lies on the spot.

Upon close examination, the jock noticed that Edward’s clothing was a mess and he was also visibly sweating as well. He was heavily suspicious of the geeky lion’s behavior. In fact, the only person that he saw coming from outside into the school was Isaac.

It then dawned on Jackson. “Did Isaac do something to Lenin?” he inquired, which put Edward in a very tough spot.

Edward got extremely tense. He dreaded Isaac might be overhearing this. He even felt stupid for being so paranoid now. He was frightened at how the bully managed to constrict his heart in such a manner.

“Look, Jackson…it’s better not to get…” Edward started by he cut off by the athlete.

“He hurt Lenin again, didn’t he?” Jackson stated. His face contorted with anger. “I’m going to kill him!” he growled as he turned to find Isaac to break his face in half.

However, Edward held him by the arm and said, “Please, don’t do anything harsh! Lenin already suffered a lot and I’m worried about him. I don’t know where to find him. Please, help me with this!”

“That asshole had it coming for a long time!” Jackson countered.

“And then he’ll lash out on Lenin again!” Edward replied.

Jackson stopped at that. The lion with glasses had a point there. He had to think of a way to handle Isaac without putting his friends in further danger. He then had to suppress his anger, because finding Lenin and making sure he was alright was indeed a priority right now. “Fine. But nothing is stopping me from having a ‘talk’ with Isaac.”

“You didn’t see what he just did to us, especially to Lenin! He’s crazy!” Edward replied desperately trying to de-escalate the situation.

However, Jackson was firm about this, “Isaac is not some invincible monster. Why do you think he never bothers anyone from the basketball or football teams? Because he knows any of us would mop the floor with him. He’s a filthy coward who pretends to be strong.”

Edward wasn’t so sure about that as he hoped he hadn’t made the situation even worse for Lenin by telling Jackson about it.

Seeing his scared expression, Jackson tried to force himself to calm down, “Look, we can leave Isaac for later. First, we find Lenin and talk to him about this. He probably went back to his home. It’s not far from here.”

“Do you know where it is?” Edward asked rubbing his right arm. He was very nervous. He wanted to apologize to Lenin and hope that the albino would forgive him for allowing Isaac to harm him so much.

“Yes. Come with me. We can get there in 15 minutes if we hurry.” Jackson told him. Truth to be told, he could get there in less than that if he were to run, but he doubted the lion with glasses could keep up with him.

Jackson then led the way to Lenin’s house. Both of them hoped they could make things right for the albino lion.

___________________

When they got there, they saw that the door of the house was wide open. While their town’s crime rate was quite low, nobody left their doors unlocked, much less open like that. A chill ran down both boys’ spine.

“Is anyone there? Lenin?” Jackson asked a little loud, but there was no reply. He looked at Edward, who shared the same worried look.

“We should see if he’s okay…We can apologize to him and his family later,” Edward suggested. He felt a little guilty for intruding, but it wasn’t like they were going to do anything bad anyway.

“Yeah…” Jackson agreed, also feeling uncomfortable for intruding.

The duo slowly walked inside calling for Lenin, however, the silence was all they got. A quick look at the living room showed nobody was there, so they decided to check the kitchen first before going upstairs.

When they go to the kitchen, they saw Lenin’s unconscious body sitting near a cabinet. His head was down and was unresponsive to anything. Both boys practically screamed as they rushed towards the albino lion.

“Lenin!”

“Lenin!”

They kneeled next to him and tried to shake him awake, but it was of no use. Then, they saw something that horrified them. He was foaming a little from his mouth and Edward noticed the box of antidepressants he was still clutching on his hand.

“He’s overdosing!” He quickly understood as he pointed to the box Lenin had in his hand.

Jackson’s attention turned towards the medicine and hoped it might not be too late. He swiftly picked his cellphone and dialed the local hospital for help. Meanwhile, Edward debated if he should try making Lenin throw up or not. He dreaded the albino lion could choke on his puke. Lenin’s ragged breathing was enough to scare the daylights out of him.

The athlete talked to the hospital and gave them Lenin’s address and after a little while, he thanked them and hung the phone. He turned to Edward and told him, “They said they’ll be here in ten minutes tops.”

Edward hoped their friend could endure that long. Jackson then asked him, “Do you have Lenin’s mother’s number? We must call her as well.”

However, the geeky lion shook his head, “No. But I think the school does have it.”

Jackson nodded in agreement as he called the school, but all he said was that a “grave incident” had happened with Lenin and that his mother should come back to her house as quickly as possible. He didn’t want to expose Lenin even more given the circumstances.

After he hung up the phone, he looked at Edward, who looked like he was about to cry. “This is my fault…All of this is my fault! If I hadn’t tried to stand up to Isaac, Lenin wouldn’t have…”

“STOP IT!” Jackson practically shouted, drawing Edward’s attention. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Standing up to a bully is not something anyone should feel ashamed of. This is Isaac’s fault and nobody else’s!”

“But…” The geeky lion tried to say, but he was interrupted once again.

“I don’t know what Isaac did to you guys, but I can tell it was something horrible. I cannot and will not forgive him for this. But none of this is your fault! Lenin will be alright! Help is coming and we can make things right!” the jock said adamantly.

Edward found himself wanting to believe his words. They were the only things he could cling to at the moment. He wished he could have that much courage and hope. What he didn’t know was that Jackson was also terrified. The athlete also wanted to believe in his own words. He was also blaming himself for this situation because he had decided to not punish Isaac before, at Lenin’s request.

 _‘What if he survives only to try to do it again? No! I can’t let things get to this situation!’_ Jackson thought as he started to pace around the house. These had to be the longest ten minutes of his life.

Edward started to wonder why Jackson never mentioned Lenin’s father at any moment. He didn’t know if he had died or if Lenin’s parents were divorced or something like it. After all, he couldn’t find any picture of their family at any place inside Lenin’s home. “Are his parents divorced? I mean, shouldn’t we let his father know as well?”

Jackson shifted restlessly at the question. This was a well-known story in the town, but there was no way Edward could have known about it yet. “Yes. I don’t know the details, but they got divorced a long time ago. I don’t know if they keep in contact or not. We should let this be his mom’s decision.”

Edward decided to not inquire any further. He realized how tactless his question was given Lenin’s circumstances. The geeky lion kept on looking at his clock and back at the door praying help would arrive soon.

As for Jackson, he started to think if it wouldn’t have been quicker to just grab Lenin and sprint to the hospital. However, he feared the movement could make things even worse. He paced around the house, peeking outside every few seconds, hoping to see the ambulance, while Edward kept an eye on the albino lion.

The unconscious boy then spasmed a little couching rather violently, spewing saliva all over himself, as if he were choking on it.

“LENIN, PLEASE, DON’T DIE! I’m really sorry, Lenin. I didn’t mean for this to happen. Please, don’t die!” The lion with glasses panicked as he held Lenin’s shoulders, not knowing what he should do. Jackson was also terrified that Lenin might not survive long enough until the doctors arrived.

Thankfully, the duo soon heard sirens coming from outside, and Jackson sprint to direct them to Lenin, while Edward remained with the unconscious boy. Two paramedics, a lion and a lioness wearing green uniforms, got inside the house and questioned the boys about what had happened, while quickly examining Lenin’s vital signs.

The geeky lion explained how Lenin most likely took too many anti-depressants and was overdosing. The female paramedic then asked if they were friends or relatives to Lenin and Edward replied they were his friends.

“His pulse is decreasing and his breathing is ragged. We need to take him to the emergency, now!” Said the male paramedic as he finished.

“Alright, we’ll take it from here.” Said the lioness as she helped her partner to put Lenin on a stretcher they brought.

“Please save him!” Edward begged them.

The lioness gave him a reassuring smile and said, “We’ll do everything we can. Please stay here and inform his relatives to come to the hospital, alright?”

Edward and Jackson agreed to it and watched them carry Lenin and place him inside the ambulance. After they left Lenin’s home, Jackson closed its door. It would be too awkward to go back inside uninvited, so the two decided to wait for Lenin’s mother to appear outside the house.

“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Edward asked, rubbing his arms in nervousness as he watched the ambulance leave.

Jackson looked at the geeky lion and assured him, “He’s with professionals now. Besides, he couldn’t have ingested the medicine more than one hour ago. Thankfully, we got here in time.”

Jackson said that to calm not just Edward, but himself as well. It was because one thing was crawling on the jock’s neck: Lenin had poor eating habits. The athlete remembered how Lenin skipped meals, which resulted in him being lighter than he should be, not to mention how easily he passed out from light exercises. The jock had considered talking to him more sternly about it, but he didn’t get the chance. He chose to not comment about it with Edward because he didn’t want to worry him more than the geeky lion already was.

Jackson was also feeling guilty for not doing anything sooner and he hoped the albino lion could survive this ordeal.

The two stood there, mostly in silence until Lenin’s mother arrived a few minutes later. She had heard the siren of the ambulance from afar and she dreaded imagining what might have happened. She came running from her job and she found two boys she had never seen before in front of her house.

“Are you Lenin’s mother?” Edward asked, feeling very uncomfortable.

“Who are you? Were you the ones that called the school because of Lenin? What happened to him?” she inquired as her heart pounded in her chest.

Edward took a deep breath and, while omitting Isaac’s name, he told her that a bully had beaten Lenin up at school. Jackson frowned a little at the omission, but he understood Edward’s reasoning and feelings. If his mother knew, things could get ugly.

 _‘But I’ll make sure that asshole will get his due!’_ The athlete thought darkly.

Meanwhile, the lioness felt like the ground had vanished from under her feet and she almost lost balance when she heard her son tried to kill himself with medicine. She knew her son was being bullied, but not to such a point!

 _‘How could I have not seen this sooner? Because I kept telling him to never bring attention to himself and keep his head down, he thought he could stomach so much abuse from others … I’m a horrible mother!’_ She thought as cold sweat took over her.

“I need to go see my son!” She said walking past the two boys and rushing to the hospital.

Edward then said, “We’re coming with you!” and when she turned to look at them with a baffled expression.

“What? Why?” She imagined the two teens just happened to follow her son and found him like that.

Edward flinched and added, “I mean, we’re his friends!”

She blinked multiple times before she processed it. _‘Friends?’_ She then recalled her son mentioned having finally made friends. She thought her son was just projecting a little and being mostly defensive after giving it some thought back then. But now, she felt even more guilt for doubting Lenin.

“Thank you…” It was all she could say. She knew her son needed help and they seemed like they could do it much better than she could. Her fear, negligence, agony, and ineptitude as a mother had reached a breaking point, where she couldn’t even see how much pain her son was enduring.

She looked at the two and then softly said, “Let’s go to the hospital together.”

___________________

Isaac was quite pissed off when he finally got home. He hated detention with a fiery passion. Not only he had to spend even more time at school, but his parents also chew him every time he got detention. He was grounded for a month thanks to the twins.

Thinking about Antony still makes his blood boil. Isaac has always felt betrayed by him ever since the cave incident. Sure, Isaac felt a little bad for not helping his brother, but Leandro suffered no serious injuries and Antony made a storm in a teacup out of it.

Antony was his best friend. His only friend, in fact. The only person in town who shared the pain of being stuck with a sibling that only dragged them down. Isaac couldn’t wrap his head as to why the twins got so close after the incident.

Granted, Leandro saved Antony from being hit by the wall, but it wasn’t like it was such a big deal. If anything, that act should have been compensation for Antony for being such a lousy brother.

To make matters worse, Antony now always sided with his brother in every case and wouldn’t let him “rightfully” mock Harry as well. The bully saw that as nothing but betrayal. That was why he made them suffer under his thumb.

But, deep down, Isaac always hoped Antony would come to his senses and ditch his wimpy brother. Isaac would admit this to no one, not even himself, but he hated the notion of being completely alone. He didn’t want to become, like he liked to say, “one of the loser kids who had no friends”.

However, Antony never abandoned his brother and, so, Isaac found himself using more and more vicious tactics to keep a hold on everyone around him. He refused to let them go. He would not allow himself to feel weak and depending on others.

He unceremoniously opened the door of his house and entered it, without telling anybody he did so. His house was quite spacious. It had white ceramic flooring with no carpets. Many pictures were hanging on the walls of him and his family, a large living room, and a kitchen.

His stomach growled a bit, so he went to the kitchen to get a snack. There, his hunger almost disappeared entirely, as he saw the person held most contempt for, his sister. She was by the kitchen table doing her homework.

The bully severely despised her for all she had done to him. She had been born with health problems and she can’t walk as a result. Their parents gave all their attention to Alice and he took a backseat when it came down to their affection.

Isaac lost count of how many times his parents had to break promises to him to take care of some issue Alice was having. And, to make matters worse, every time he and his sister argued, their parents always took her side.

When he finally confronted his parents about it, they told him “Stop being so selfish”, or “Be a man! Your sister has health issues, while you’re healthy.”

And so, Isaac gave up on it all. He stopped expecting any form of recognition from his parents, who only talked to him to complain about his behavior whenever the school called them.

He was sick and tired of it all. He couldn’t wait until he got old enough, move to a big city, and get away from his family. Since he was already in hot water, he bit his tongue and ignored the lioness completely.

However, she did acknowledge his presence, “Hey, Isaac.”

She always tried to talk to him for some reason he couldn’t understand. He often suspected it was because she wanted him to feel sorry for her like everyone else. He would not become her bootlicker like the others. “Hey.” He merely bluntly replied.

 _‘If I had ignored her, she would just whine to mom and dad.’_ He thought bitterly.

He also couldn’t just grab anything now that she was there because he feared she might tell on him. Threats didn’t work with her and only made things worse for him. So, he had to content himself with an apple.

He also noticed that his parents were nowhere around and dinnertime was approaching. “Where are mom and dad?” He asked taking a bit of his fruit.

Alice turned the wheelchair away from the table to face him and said, “They told me they were going to get home late today, so they’ll bring pizza home tonight.”

“I see.” He merely said munching on it again. He then looked around, feeling uncomfortable, and decided to just go to his room.

Alice also felt quite awkward every time she spoke with her brother. She never wanted them to have such a strained relationship. However, she knew where things had gone wrong, in their relationship, but it wasn’t her fault. She often asked her parents to talk to Isaac and pay more attention to him and all they did was to praise her for caring about him, but in the end, they dismissed her worries.

When they actually spoke to him, more often than not, it was to complain about his behavior, which Alice agreed it was unacceptable. Her brother often did bad things at school and she hoped from the bottom of her heart that the most heinous rumors about him weren’t true.

He always had been a jerk towards her. Always complaining and accusing her of hogging their parents all for her and making people pity her. She hated this. While she was bound to a wheelchair, she was far from being helpless. She always strived to be as independent as possible.

But none of it mattered in Isaac’s eyes. To him, she was just abusing her condition to gain favors from others and he could not be convinced of otherwise.

It wasn’t like he was utterly against the notion of having a healthy sibling, but he would rather be an only child. Years of neglect from his parents added to his own selfish and narcissistic impulses warped his mind into what he now was.

Isaac’s curiosity took better hold of him and he peeked at what his sister was studying. There were some History and Geography books on the table, but he saw some music books.

As much he hated to admit, his sister did have a pretty voice. ‘ _Too bad, everything else about her is broken.’_ He thought as he finished his apple. But he then forced himself to not feel empathy towards her.

 _‘She’s the reason why mom and dad hate me, after all._ ’ He not-so-secretly secretly accused her in his mind. He threw the core of the apple in the bin and just said “Bye.” Without so much as looking at her.

“Bye…” She replied back, but she couldn’t tell if he actually heard it or not.

As Isaac approached the stairway, he glanced at the elevator right next to it. This was something his parents had built for their house many years ago to allow Alice to go up and down stairs without the need of someone having to carry her and the wheelchair all the time. It gave her some good freedom of movement.

At first, Isaac considered it a giant waste of money, because, to him, his parents spent a lot of cash to enable Alice to do something any other normal lion could easily do. But later on, he learned to appreciate it, simply for the fact that, if the elevator didn’t exist, his parents would have forced him to carry her around every time she needed it.

After all, they already made him do it whenever the elevator required maintenance. But Alice also despised when this happened. Not only she knew her brother have a profound distaste to help her, but she also wasn’t fond of having to depend on others all the time to move around. She was glad the school had installed ramps for her to move around between floors.

After Isaac got to his room, he sighed at the empty place where his TV used to be. His parents had taken it away for the duration of his punishment. He would have thrown a fit out of boredom if it weren’t for the fact that his parents had forgotten to confiscate his phone. He kept his mouth shut about it and did his best to never use his phone in front of his parents to avoid reminding them of it.

His room was quite spacious, he had a big wooden wardrobe that occupied the entire wall, where he kept his clothes, books, and whatever else he had, or wanted to hide. There was a nightstand next to his round bed, as well as a desk with a chair

He took off his shoes and laid on his bed’s blue sheet as he mindlessly used the internet. He wasn’t looking for anything in particular, as he just wanted to kill time until dinner. The bully didn’t feel like doing his homework or studying.

He always did his best to not think about his family as they irked him to no end. But his mind ended up drifting towards Lenin and what he did to the albino lion earlier. He hadn’t seen him for the rest of the classes, nor he saw Harry, Antony, Leandro, or even that new teen.

The bully frowned at the thought. ‘ _I totally scared them! I don’t have anything to worry about. It’s not my fault that freak is so weak he goes running back to his home every time something minor happens…’_

However, he couldn’t explain why this was bothering him so much. ‘ _Did I overdo it?_ ’ he then shook his head, _‘No! Of course, I didn’t! That freak was using his condition to make people pity him. People like to flock all over the weak and start doing all kinds of crap for them as if they can’t even wipe their own asses! The worst part is that they do it to make themselves feel better about it. They don’t even try to fix those defects!’_

_‘It’s not my fault if he can’t make friends without making others pity him. They all should see that just because he was born wrong, he’s not entitled to any special treatment! They should thank me for opening their eyes!’_

He put his phone down as he stared at the ceiling. _‘Then why…’_

He then clenched his phone around his right hand, ‘ _Is he making me pity him as well? No! I refuse to feel sorry for the freak! I didn’t do anything wrong! None of this is my fault!’_

___________________

Lenin was feeling horrible when he finally opened his eyes. The lighting in the room was too much for him as he needed to blink several times to get used to it. He darted his eyes across the white room as the anti-septic smell filled his nostrils.

He was in a small room at the local hospital. He turned his gaze to his left side and saw an IV dripping a liquid into his left arm, wondering how long he had been there. He also noticed his chest was connected to a heart rate monitor, which was making a steady sound. He also realized there was a thin tube going inside of his right nostril, connected to something he couldn’t see from that position.

He then tried to get up, but his body failed him. He felt too weak to do anything. His torso still hurt from Isaac’s beating, which made things even worse for him. He thought it would be better to stay still on the bed.

The albino lion considered calling for someone, however, he decided against it. He didn’t want to bother anyone, after all, someone was bound to come to check on him eventually. He also noticed there was a chair on the right side of his bed, but he thought it was standard for hospitals. ‘ _Nobody would visit me…’_ He thought bitterly.

His nightmare was still vivid in his mind. He was fully away from what he had almost done. ‘ _Everyone must think that I’m crazy now…I bet they think I’ll try it again…’_

 ** _‘Oh, and you definitely will! You could have died peacefully, but you chose this._** ’ Iczog taunted him.

Lenin didn’t bother responding to it. He merely clenched the sheet covering him. He was painfully aware the so-called voice was his own thoughts…He didn’t want to try to commit suicide again. He wanted to live! But he dreaded he might be pushed to it again.

The albino lion then noticed his body was covered in bandages and this made his blood run cold. ‘ _They know…’_ was all he could think.

The doctors were aware someone had hurt him. What was he even going to say? He certainly didn’t know what he would do. He started to hyperventilate as the heart rate monitor started to display his increased heartbeat frequency.

The beeping sound only served to stress the young lion even more. He didn’t want to go back to sleep. He feared he might not wake up this time, and, above all else, he didn’t want to a repeat of that horrible nightmare.

He held onto his cover as he wondered what was going to happen to him. However, his attention was quickly turned to the sound of a door opening. It was his mother. Her mouth was wide open when she saw her son awake.

“Mom?” he blurted out weakly, shifting his nose a little. The tube inside of his nostril was bothering him a little.

 ** _‘She came here just now to see if you kicked the bucket or not. You can bet she was forced to miss work because of you! She knows you tried to kill yourself! You embarrassed her even more! She hates you!’_** Iczog berated Lenin in his mind, making the teenager start to cry, believing every word.

He wanted to tell her he was sorry, that this would never happen ever again. ‘ _But how many times did I say this to her already? Who am I kidding? I’m never getting any better! I’m a failure through and through! I should have…’_

She silently rushed to his side and then did something he thought she would never do to him ever again.

She hugged him.

End of chapter 11


	12. Reconciliation

Lenin was stupefied at the situation. His mother was hugging him tightly. It hurt a little, but he felt a strange warmth he hadn’t felt in a long time. That nightmare he had couldn’t even come close to the real thing.

“Never do such thing ever again! I don’t want to lose you! I love you, Lenin!” His mother said while sobbing over the injured boy.

The albino lion’s eyes teared up at hearing that. He forgot how long he longed for these words. But this only made him feel even more guilty for what he had done to himself.

“I’m sorry, mom…” he said hoarsely. It was a bit hard for him to talk.

 ** _‘How many times have you apologized and never done anything to better yourself?’_** Iczog berated him.

His mother hugged him tighter, not wanting to let go of her son, “I’m the one who’s sorry. I…didn’t see…No. I didn’t want to see it. I wanted to pretend everything was fine. Please forgive me, Lenin!”

Lenin’s vision became hazy as his mother spoke. “I didn’t want to be a bother anymore…” Part of him truly thought that death was his only way out of his problems. He wanted to live, but it was so difficult to keep going.

“You’re not a bother, Lenin!” his mother nearly shouted.

Lenin could only stare at her in return. **_‘You know this is a lie!_** ’ Iczog murmured in an almost soft tone.

“I know I am! Please don’t lie! Everyone treats us badly all because I was born like this! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Lenin managed to say as tears freely fell from his eyes. He was feeling distraught and guilty. His mother was finally showing him the love he longed for and instead of embracing it, he felt even worse.

 ** _‘Maybe Isaac was right. Maybe you want people to pity you.’_** Iczog chimed in once more. The thought scared Lenin. He dreaded that this “sudden” love was a product of pity and guilt. He wanted them to be a normal family.

 _‘I don’t want love I don’t deserve!’_ Lenin shouted in his mind, half-expecting his other self to agree, but Iczog never replied to that.

His mother was at a loss forwords. She could only hug him once more as regret took over her. All those times she lashed out at him gave the boy the impression he was unwanted. To make matters worse, in the worse days, the thought did cross her mind.

‘ _I’m a horrible mother.’_ She thought as she struggled to say something to ease Lenin’s pain.

She gathered courage and told him with a soft tone, “Lenin, listen to me…I know I’ve made mistakes. I know I should have treated you better…I also wished for people to leave us alone and not mistreat us. But do not misunderstand one thing: I **do** love you. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you.”

Lenin closed his eyes tightly shut as he wept. He tried to hug her back, but he was feeling exhausted, even though he had been lying there for a long time, it seemed.

However, their moment was cut short when they heard a voice saying, “Miss, what are…Is he awake? Please, don’t do anything that might hurt the patient. He needs space and rest.” It was a doctor, a lion with a grey and short mane wearing a white lab coat.

Lenin’s mother frowned at the implication, but she knew he was right. Her son was still recovering and they could have a better talk later when he’s feeling stronger. She was already livid at them for insinuating she might have had something to do with his malnourishment, but she had to accept she had a hand in it as well. She should have realized he was suffering and done something about it.

To make matters worse, the hospital notified the police and they immediately suspected she might have been the one to hurt Lenin. If it weren’t for Jackson and Edward clarifying everything, she might still be on the suspect list. However, the boys said that “they didn’t know” who was the one to attack her son. But she suspected they knew.

She wanted to strangle whoever did this to him.

She snapped out of her thoughts and broke the hug from Lenin as the doctor approached to check the boy’s vital signs. She stood nearby as he verified his blood pressure, pupils’ reaction to the light, heartbeat, and so on.

The doctor turned to the lioness and said, “He’s improving, thankfully. But he must stay here for a few more days until he’s back at full strength.”

The doctor glanced at Lenin and then back to his mother, “May I have a word in private, ma’am?”

The boy wasn’t really fond of how the doctor looked at him and was a little anxious at what might the doctor want to talk to his mother.

 ** _‘Maybe you’re dying.’_** Iczog chimed in.

 _‘SHUT UP!’_ However, Lenin feared it might be the case since the doctor was behaving in such a secretive manner. He hoped his mother would tell him what was it about later.

“Okay, mom…” he ended up saying.

His mother gently patted him on the head “I’ll be right back.” She said before leaving with the doctor.

The lioness and the doctor left the room and she immediately asked, “What is it, doctor? Is something wrong with my son?”

The doctor shook his head, “Nothing of the sort. While he’s weak, he is indeed recovering. What I wanted to discuss with you in private is what you’ll do now, Miss.”

She raised an eyebrow suspiciously at the question, “I’m sorry doctor, I’m feeling rather tired, can you be more direct?”

The lion was unphased by her aggressive tone as he explained, “What I mean is that it’s very troubling for a boy to attempt suicide. Is he seeing a psychiatric?”

She nodded, “Yes. He sees Dr. Serena once a week.”

Since there weren’t many psychiatrics in the small town, the doctor was aware of who she was talking about. “That’s good. You should contact her as soon as possible and discuss with her how you’ll handle your son’s situation. This cannot repeat itself.”

She crossed her arms and clenched hard at the thought Lenin might try to do it again. “You’re right. I’ll call her office and schedule more sessions with her once Lenin leaves the hospital.”

The doctor nodded and made a pause. He had to talk about this particular subject matter, but he knew it was a touchy subject, “Madam, the police still require you to go there and give your statement to them about what happened to your kid.”

“WHAT? WHAT DO THEY THINK I AM?” She yelled at him at the mention of the police officers.

“Ms., this is a hospital. Please do not shout anymore.” He quickly said looking about. The hospital wasn’t full, but there were other patients there.

She swallowed her anger in embarrassment. She was still fuming at the false accusation, but part of her did feel like she had a hand in her son’s current state. ‘ _Had I been a better mother, he wouldn’t be hospitalized…’_ she thought bitterly.

“I understand that every mother hates to be accused of such, but since he’s a minor, the law requires them to see if no abuse was committed. You should give them your side of the facts, so they can do their job properly.”

Then he gave a brief pause before adding, “I also have managed to give your son some time, but I imagine he’ll be questioned soon as well. I also think those two other boys from yesterday will also be questioned.” The doctor explained trying to calm her down. He did think, at first, that this might be a domestic abuse case, but seeing how the boy reacted with his mother and what the two other boys had stated before, it cleared his doubts concerning the origins of Lenin’s problems, but the doctor wasn’t exactly surprised to know the true origin of the albino lion’s wounds either. The entire hospital was also aware of Lenin since he was essentially a celebrity in their small town, so he imagined what the kid had to go through daily.

“Thank you...Lenin doesn’t need any of this crap right now…” she said while averting her gaze from the old doctor.

The doctor smiled at her before saying, “You should ready him for it. Things might get a little complicated…”

‘ _More than they already are?_ ’ She thought a little bitterly. But there was no helping it. She didn’t even know if the police could end up helping them. Even if they got rid of the person who beat Lenin, this wouldn’t really change the town’s opinion of them.

A nurse appeared and then told the doctor that another patient needed his care. The old lion then told Lenin’s mother, “I’m sorry, but I must go now. Later, I’ll see if he’s strong enough to eat on his own before removing the tube inside of his stomach. He should have some rest to recover, but you may talk to him. Just be careful to not overexert him, okay? If something happens, there’s a button near his bed. Press it and we’ll come quickly.”

She nodded and thanked him for the attention. As she watched them go, she thought as she turned walked back to Lenin’s room, ‘ _Maybe I shouldn’t have stopped looking for work in another town. Maybe a fresh start would do Lenin some good…’_ But then she remembered how her boy finally met others who finally befriended him. She wondered if separating them could end up being worse for him in the end.

She sighed as she wasn’t sure what was the right path to take. She opened the door back into the room and she saw her son stirring. Lenin had dozed off a little after she left the room.

“I’m sorry, Lenin. Did I wake you?” she said as she walked towards the chair next to the bed and sat on it.

“No…I just closed my eyes for a few moments, I guess.” He replied, blinking a couple of times. He felt so very tired and his body felt very heavy. But he wanted to be awake.

“It’s okay if you need to sleep, Lenin. I’ll be right here.” She said as she gently patted his mane a little.

The boy enjoyed the touch, but then he finally noticed the analog wall clock on the other side of the room. It said it was 08:22 and since a lot of light was coming from the window, it was obviously morning.

“Mom…what day is today?” He asked this because he remembered that it was about lunch break when he went back home.

She hesitated a little before answering it. “It’s Friday, Lenin.”

 _‘I’ve been asleep for almost a full day? Then, why am I so tired?’_ He thought as he kept staring at the clock. Then he realized something else, “Mom, shouldn’t you be at work? Won’t you get in trouble?”

She gave him a reassuring smile, “You don’t have to worry about these things, Lenin.”

But the boy gave her a very anxious expression. It was clear he thought she might get fired because of him. “Really, you don’t have to fret over it, Lenin. I’ve had some vacation I had to take in any case and my boss was surprisingly understanding.”

She almost bit her lips at the slip-up. She was surprised when her boss said, she could take her accumulated vacation now. She had been working nearly non-stop for a long time now and this also part of the reason for her stress as well. She had refused to take vacations mostly because her work helped her not think about her problems.

“Oh.” It was all Lenin said. He was relieved that she wasn’t in any trouble because of him, so his body visibly relaxed a little. His belly hurt a little, so he placed a hand over it.

The doctor told her Lenin had slight chronic gastritis, probably induced by stress and poor eating habits, according to his clinical story, but the huge amount of medicine he had taken also worsened it a little. It was still treatable, so he told her to not worry so much about it. However, they had to do something to reduce the amount of stress the boy suffered, which was easier said than done. She felt like she had a long uphill battle ahead of her.

Lenin wanted to stay awake and talk to his mom more, but his eyes were so heavy. His mother noticed him fighting to stay awake. She smiled as she kept stroking his mane, “It’s okay, Lenin. You can go to sleep.”

But the boy didn’t want to, especially because he didn’t want to risk another nightmare like that. “But…”

But his mother cut him off, “I’ll be here when you wake up. We can talk more after you’re feeling stronger. Rest now, son.”

Lenin teared up a little as he allowed his eyes to close, leading him to a dreamless sleep.

___________________

Earlier that day, before school started, Isaac waited for Lenin to show up. He didn’t intend to hit him at that moment, but he thought a good scare would keep him in check. But the albino lion never showed up. Isaac gritted his teeth in anger.

‘ _The freak thinks he can jump over the wall even after I made it clear for him not to? I was going to go easy on him today, but if he wants it the hard way, I’ll show him who’s the boss here!’_ Isaac thought as he stormed inside of the school looking for Lenin.

He asked some other teens who were around about the albino’s whereabouts, but no one had seen him. Everyone cowered when Isaac talked to them. Because of that, he doubted they would all lie to him just to protect Lenin.

Isaac liked to see others trembling before him. It always made him feel important, powerful, in control. However, he wished he could have someone to actually talk to. He had tried forcing Antony to hang out before in the last attempt to “talk sense into him”, but it was just a boring and awkward time, so Isaac never bothered with it again.

The bully was sure that nobody in the town understood him or what he went through at home. _‘It’s better to be on top than on the bottom.’_ he thought as he decided to search for the albino lion. He wasn’t going to let him dodge him like before. However, there was no trace of Lenin in the entire school.

 _‘Did the freak decide to skip school? Is he going to spend another week at home?_ ’ He wondered as he walked back to the main entrance hall. He then stopped in his tracks and quickly shook his head, ‘ _Why am I feeling guilty about this? It’s not my fault if he’s as weak as I told him. Nobody would ever want to be his friend. I bet that nerd only is trying to do so because he thinks losers should stick together or some crap like that. That stupid nerd even thought he could defy me!’_

But the nagging feeling never left his mind. He decided to go to his locker and pick his stuff for the classes and focus on that. In fact, it was for the bets that Lenin didn’t come to school. This way he could just remain unnoticed since that was his last day of detention. However, as he was rummaging on his locker, he heard other students talking.

“Did you hear? Lenin was sent to the hospital!”

“How do you know that?”

“The neighbor’s son overheard the whole thing and told my sister.”

“Did you know who had something…gah!” the lion talking suddenly jumped when he noticed that Isaac was staring right at them. The duo hadn’t recognized him before, since Isaac’s back was turned to them.

“What did you say? Lenin is at the hospital?” Isaac asked. Part of him was shocked, while the other was concerned. _‘I didn’t beat him that hard! I made sure of it! Is he so weak that a few punches are enough to break him?’_

The due just confirmed it and made up some excuse to bail from there. They didn’t want to be near Isaac for long, since both had been his victims before. The bully didn’t even attempt at going after them. ‘ _Did….I overdo? No! But…’_ His mind started to wonder, but he was snapped out of it as he heard someone nearly screaming for his name.

“ISAAC!” It was Jackson. The athlete was nearly stomping his way towards the bully.

 _‘Huh?: what does he want with me? I never messed with him or his team!’_ Isaac thought as he put all his things back at the locker as he faced the athlete, whose face displayed nothing but hatred.

When Jackson got near enough of the bully, he punched him without so much as a warning. The athlete his him right on his stomach, slamming the bully against the locker. Hard.

Isaac fell on his knees gasping for air as the jock stared down at him, still with the scariest expression he had ever seen.

“Get up! Unlike you, I don’t hit those who are down!” the athlete commanded.

“What is wrong with you? I didn’t do anything to you?” Isaac countered without getting up. He didn’t want to get up. His legs were trembling at his sight. That punch had hurt a lot and he didn’t want to receive another one.

The jock scoff at that comment. “Since when ‘not doing anything’ has ever stopped you? Besides, what you did to Lenin and everyone else here is unforgivable! Now, GET. UP!” finished clenching his fists tighter.

“What? This is about the freak? I didn’t do anything to him! I just heard he was sent to the hospital, but this isn’t my fault!” he said as he finally stood up. Everyone was gathering around them and everyone was staring at him.

Displaying weakness there would destroy his entire reputation. If he cowered in front of this audience now, Isaac feared he might end up on the rock bottom of the school hierarchy.

“You. Filthy. Liar!” Jackson nearly bellowed as he readied himself to attack Isaac again.

 _‘Someone must have snitched on me to this idiot.’_ Isaac thought. “Besides, why do you even care? Do you want some brownie points for pretending to be some ally of justice? Do you want to be even more popular? Do you want to be nominated king of prom or some shit like that?”

But Isaac couldn’t finish his sentence. A punch hit him on his face, he couldn’t even dodge it. But this time, he managed to keep his balance. The bully growled and tried to punch the jock back, however, the athlete grabbed his fist and twisted his arm, making the bully yelp in pain.

“You truly are an asshole. I don’t give a crap about any of that. You hurt a lot of people. You even hurt my friend and he’s no in a hospital because of you!” Jackson berated him as he landed another punch on Isaac, sending the bully to the ground this time, letting go of his arm in the process.

“Not so brave picking on someone who fights back, huh? Is this enough pain for you? Do you see what you’re making others go through every single day?” the jock continued.

“Screw you!” He shouted back. Everyone was staring at him. Some even smiling, others recording it with their phones. They were enjoying seeing him being beaten.

‘ _Stop! Don’t look! STOP!’_ Isaac thought before telling him, “Leave me alone!”

“Alone? How many times has Lenin begged this of you? You have some nerve!” Jackson nearly yelled as he clenched his fists waiting for Isaac to get up. Jackson had to admit he was struggling to hold himself back.

 _‘This monster drove Lenin to try to kill himself and he has the guts to spew all of this?’_ Jackson angrily thought as he kept eyeing Isaac.

The bully didn’t want to get up anymore. It was clear to him he could not win this fight. But he had to. He could hear the whispers of people wanting to cheer on Jackson. People talking about how Isaac deserved it and more. If he didn’t get up now, any of them could try to attack him afterward. He had to show that he would fight back and that nobody else should mess with him.

He had spent a lot of time memorizing who were in the sports teams and who were their friends. The last thing Isaac wanted was to anger a guy, who, as he put it, had more muscles than brain cells. However, this last part is what bugged Isaac the most.

“Lenin is your friend? Since when? Since he got hurt? How convenient for you to claim to be his friend at this moment!” The bully said. He hoped he could somehow hurt the jock’s reputation and also to make him feel shame for “pretending” to care just to be more popular.

Jackson was outraged by this accusation. Lenin was his friend. But, still, the athlete did feel guilty for not stopping this whole problem sooner. Isaac’s words did hurt him in this regard.

 _‘I know part of this is my fault, but I’ll fix it now! He’s not going to so much as touch anyone after I’m done with him.’_ Jackson thought as he was about to brutalize Isaac, who readied himself to try to block the attacks.

However, they were interrupted. “Enough, Jackson!” Edward said while holding the basketball captain from behind. As soon as the geeky lion saw the scene, he rushed to stop the whole thing.

The geeky lion had no hopes of overpowering the athlete, but he had to stop it before it spiraled out of control. Confused by it, Jackson turned to Edward, but before he tells him to let him go, they all nearly jumped when they heard a teacher approaching.

“What’s all this commotion?” the English teacher demanded as she eyed the crowd around Jackson, Isaac, and Edward. “What happened here?” she said once she got near the trio.

Silence took over all of them. Not even the bystanders dared to utter a word. However, to everyone’s surprise, Isaac was the one to say, “Nothing, teacher. We just…had a disagreement here.”

The English teacher narrowed her eyes at the known troublemaker. Then she turned to Jackson for confirmation. She didn’t need to ask anything, for everyone already knew what she wanted to know.

“Things got a little heated, but it’s over now. Right, Isaac?” Jackson lied while eyeing the bully. The athlete didn’t enjoy the fact he had just lied to a teacher, but he figured it was the least bad option here.

“Yes…” Isaac said, fighting to not add an insult there. He understood what the jock meant by that and he would be damned if he were to take orders now. Nobody would respect or fear him anymore. Many already didn’t anymore after he took a beating.

 _‘I guess I was lucky that this self-righteous moron didn’t make me bleed. They all would have claimed I started it and they would have believed it.’_ Isaac wondered before he remembered why exactly nobody would believe in him. He had a reputation. Basically, everyone in the entire town had nothing but contempt towards him.

Still, he clenched his teeth. ‘ _No!_ _Why is this my fault anyway? I didn’t do anything today!’_ He refused to accept the situation as it is. He thought he could guarantee a few more years of peace before he graduated from high school when he could finally leave this town behind.

She scoffed and said, “Very well…Now all of you disperse and go to your classrooms immediately!”

Isaac was the first one to bolt from there, pushing away those who didn’t get away fast enough. It was too bad that the teacher was more focused on Jackson. Besides, like Lenin, she never actually had any hopes Isaac would amount to much, but, as a teacher, she refrained to voice such a thing.

She stared straight at Jackson’s eyes. That particular teacher had a knack to inflict terror on her students. The only ones who ever dared to say anything openly about her were seniors who were about to graduate since they didn’t have her as a teacher anymore.

“Now, you have a bright future ahead of you. I highly recommend you to not get involved with the likes of him anymore.” She lectured him before leaving for her own class.

Jackson had to fight not to frown. Sure, he would never want to be Isaac’s friend. But the way she talked ticked him off. ‘ _Who does she think she is saying who I can or cannot be friends with?’_ he thought.

Once they were alone, Jackson turned to Edward and asked him, “Why did you stop me?”

Edward immediately replied, “Because I think you were going a little too far…”

Jackson raised an eyebrow and waited for the other teen to continue, “There is a difference between defending yourself or someone else when a bully starts a fight. But you can’t just suddenly attack someone else.”

Jackson crossed his arms, “I didn’t take him by surprise! Besides he had it coming!”

Edward sighed, “I know…I guess I’m not being able to express myself properly here. I do think Isaac deserved it, but actually seeing him getting beaten when he didn’t start the fight didn’t really sit well with me…Sorry…I know I’m being a little confusing right now…”

The geeky lion wanted to bite his own tongue off. There he was protecting a bully from his just deserts all because of the technicality that Isaac just didn’t happen to hurt anyone that day. The memory of the previous day was still fresh in the boy’s head and he would never forgive Isaac for what he did to Lenin. But seeing the jock act in such a wrathful manner did scare him.

“I’m just scared you might go overboard. It’s easy to lose yourself in anger and let it change you.” Edward managed to say.

Jackson sighed, “I guess I understand what you mean…But I still disagree with it. Besides, I don’t intend to beat Isaac every day as he did with Lenin. If today’s beating was enough to make him stop for good, then I won’t lift a finger against him anymore.”

Edward smiled a little, “I would be lying if I said that seeing him finally be scared didn’t feel a little good. But let’s be careful about this. That guy is crazy. It’s better to watch out because he might try to get some vengeance later.”

Jackson smiled back as he assured him, “Don’t worry about that. Isaac is cruel, but not stupid. If he were to try to do anything to me, the rest of my team would have a word with him.”

“Let’s hope so.” Edward concluded before asking, “Would you like to come with me to visit Lenin later? Maybe he finally woke up.

Jackson immediately agreed to it, “Sure! I was going to invite you later too. I bet Lenin will be surprised to see us. I know you two have a lot to talk about and if you want, I can leave you two alone for that.”

Edward thanked him from the bottom of his heart. That made Jackson a little embarrassed as he said, “Dude, don’t mention it. We’re friends, so it’s no big deal.”

The geeky lion was now double surprised with himself. He had become friends with a jock.

___________________

When Lenin woke up again, it was around 12:40 p.m. He was still feeling pretty tired and weak, but it wasn’t as bad as earlier that day. His mother was using her phone and she immediately placed it in her purse when Lenin said, “Mom?”

“Lenin! How are you feeling?” She asked, concerned.

“A little better…” he said as his eyes scanned the room for the clock and saw what time it was. He wasn’t feeling any hungry. He didn’t know if he should mention this or not, but he had to at least drink or eat something if he wanted to eventually leave the hospital.

 ** _‘Why do you bother with it? Mom never cared about you like this before. You should remain sick for the rest of your life!’_** Iczog suggested to him. However, Lenin pushed such dark thoughts away. 

Lenin wanted his mother to love him, but not out of pity or guilt. He wanted to get better and work with his relationship with her.

But she interrupted his thoughts, “That’s great to hear! Are you thirsty?”

“A little…But shouldn’t I eat something?” He asked her back as he pointed at the clock.

“Are you hungry? The doctor already gave you some food through…” she stopped midsentence as Lenin may find the fact that he “ate” through that tube inside of his nose a little unsettling.

But the boy had already learned about this in one of his talks with the nurse of his school, so he was able to piece it together despite his head still feeling a little lightheaded.

“If you are feeling well enough, we can request them to take the tube off, so you can eat something.” She suggested.

Lenin would like that very much. He could feel the tube moving inside of him a little and it was quite uncomfortable to have. He, however, had to remind himself to eat properly, otherwise, they might put the tube back. He only hoped his stomach would cooperate with him this time around.

“I would like that…Did they say how long do I have to stay here?” Lenin asked her.

She froze up a little. She decided to be honest with him, “They don’t know, Lenin. You’re awake now, but I imagine you’ll be here for a few days until they are certain you’re well enough to go back home.”

**_‘Meaning: as soon as you can stand on your own, they’ll want you gone, because they don’t want to handle you try killing yourself once more here. You’ll finish the job after you get home.’_ **

Lenin frowned at the thought. He hated that voice. _‘No! You’re wrong! I’m not…I’m just talking to myself…I…really need to talk to Serena about this. I hope she doesn’t call me crazy.’_

**_‘Don’t worry. She’ll think you’re crazy, but she won’t actually voice it, otherwise, her career would be in danger.’_ **

_‘SHUT UP!’_

Lenin clenched his fists as he struggled to keep his own mind in check. His mother gently placed her hand over his and asked, “Son, is everything alright? Do you need me to call the doctor?”

He was a little startled for being dragged back to reality. He was thankful his mother stopped him from going into another downwards spiral. “I’m…okay. Don’t worry.”

She frowned a little, unconvinced by his words. She wanted to press on, but she didn’t know if Lenin could handle it in his current state. ‘ _He’s still suffering…’_ she concluded.

He then quickly asked her to change subjects, “Mom, could you get me some water, please? My mouth is quite dry.”

 _‘At least I didn’t have to lie.’_ He thought.

She, however, didn’t want to leave him alone in his current state. ‘If he’s having horrible thoughts again…I don’t know if I should leave him alone…But is it better to make him think I can’t trust him to be alone?’

She was at a loss for a few moments, which made Lenin quite uncomfortable with the silence. “Mom? Is everything okay?”

She almost found it ironic to have her son worry about her given his circumstances. “Sure, son. I’ll get some water. I’ll be right back.” She said as she left the room to quickly get some water for him.

The lioness was relieved to return and see Lenin safe and sound. Thankfully, the boy didn’t catch why she hesitated to leave the room.

Both wanted to talk more to each other, but they found it quite hard to articulate. So many years of essentially acting like strangers to each other damaged their relationship. But Lenin felt the drowsiness returning once more.

The lioness wanted to do the first step, but given Lenin’s condition, she decided to wait a little more before having such a conversation to prevent further weakening her son.

 _‘How many times I thought of talking to Lenin later? And this ‘later’ never seems to arrive…I can’t keep postponing talking to my own child like this! As soon as he’s out of the hospital I must talk properly with him. I owe it to him.’_ The thought as she looked at him doze off once more, while gently petting his mane.

“I never once told you how pretty your fur really is…” she whispered, but he was unable to hear it.

___________________

A few hours later, at around 4 p.m., Jackson and Edward arrived at the hospital and requested to visit him. Given the boy’s condition, the staff wasn’t keen on letting them in. It wasn’t like the boy was unwell enough to receive visits, but ultimately it was his mother’s decision.

After talking to Lenin’s mother through the phone, she allowed the visit, since Lenin was awake again.

“Do not make noise, boys. Remember that this is a hospital!” The receptionist reminded them.

They already were aware of the rule, but they both supposed some people who still ignored it, so the staff always had to remind everyone of it. The receptionist gave them the instructions to reach the albino lion’s room.

It didn’t take long for them to reach it and when they got there, Jackson knocked on the door and they heard Lenin’s mother “Come in” from the other side.

Lenin was surprised to see Jackson and Edward there. He had heard something about a visitor, but he imagined it was someone from his mother’s job. The lioness kept it a secret because she imagined it would be a nice surprise for her son.

Regardless to say, Lenin was nearly speechless. “You guys…”

The lioness smiled as she considered it to be safe to say it, “I’ll leave you boys alone for a little while. I’ll be around if you need me.”

She knew these two were trustworthy given how they saved her son and how concerned they were. _‘I wished they have become friends sooner…Maybe this whole situation could have been avoided._ ’ But it’s easy to think in hindsight.

They watched the lioness leave the room and after an awkward pause, Jackson and Edward approached Lenin’s bed. They were horrified seeing him like that. Lenin at least didn’t have a tube inside of his nose anymore, which was a huge relief for him.

Edward opened his mouth, but then closed it. He was about to ask “Are you okay?” but that was a dumb question. _‘Of course, he isn’t okay. This happened because of me…’_

Instead, he said, “I’m sorry, Lenin…I shouldn’t have made Isaac angrier.”

Jackson quickly looked at him, but before he could say anything Lenin spoke, “Don’t apologize. You did nothing wrong. I was the one that shouldn’t have pinned the blame on you. I was so angry at the time…”

Lenin clearly remembered that scary nightmare. If anything, it made Lenin realize that Edward was always there for him and Jackson never intended to trick him. His lashing out was product of a self-sabotage caused by not thinking things through properly.

“You never betrayed me…Thank you!” Lenin finally said.

Edward got a bit teary-eyed. He was glad that he and Lenin were still friends. As for Jackson, he could only smile, glad that this misunderstanding was solved, however, the athlete still wasn’t satisfied. This entire problem stemmed from Isaac and Jackson wasn’t going to be so kind to him, if he ever tried to do something like it again.

“But I guess we need to still keep avoiding Isaac. He’ll try to hurt us in some kind of another way.” Lenin said, fidgeting around nervously.

However, Jackson countered, “There’s no need to worry about it. Isaac won’t ever hurt you ever again.”

Lenin frowned a little, “You just don’t know that he’s…”

“A coward. He couldn’t even do anything after I kicked his sorry ass today.” Jackson said firmly.

Lenin had to blink multiple times before he processed what he had just heard, “I’m sorry, what?”

Edward then explained, “You see, Lenin, Jackson gave Isaac a beating at school and it was quite one-sided.” He then gave a lecturing stare at Jackson before adding, “And he almost got caught by a teacher.”

Edward still somewhat disapproved of the method used by Jackson, but, seeing Lenin like that, he decided that if it was enough to keep Isaac away from him, then so be it. The geeky lion also wished he didn’t have to rely on someone else like this for protection.

Jackson had mentioned to him how he had started doing exercises with Lenin. The geeky lion was seriously considering asking to join in as well.

As for the albino lion, he was having a severe case of déjà vu. He never imagined Jackson would go out of his way like that for him. This only made him feel even more ashamed at doubting him before. _‘I’m going to have to talk to him in private some other time…’_ Lenin thought.

But there was something else suddenly bothering the albino lion. “By the way, how did you know where I was? Did you ask my mother?” Lenin asked, a little confused.

Edward and Jackson looked at each other briefly, but Jackson eventually answered it, “You see, Lenin, yesterday, after Isaac…you know…Edward came to me and asked where you were, so we searched for you at your house and we…found you. We called for an ambulance as soon as possible.”

Lenin was shocked to know that they had seen him. The albino lion hesitate a lot before asking what he was dreading the most at the moment, “So…you guys know what I’m here, huh?”

“Yes.” Edward promptly answered. He then placed a hand over Lenin’s shoulder as he added, “But we’re here for you. We’re your friends. I can’t claim to say I know how much you’re hurting, but we want to help you.”

“That’s right. I know things are difficult and that Isaac isn’t the only bad person at school, but you don’t have to hesitate to ask for help, you know. If you’re feeling down or if someone is picking on you, talk to us. You’re not alone, Lenin.” Jackson added.

The albino lion couldn’t hold back his tears of joy.

End of chapter 12


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